Brazil’s Supreme Court approved Xo’s continued service in the country on Tuesday, after the social media platform reversed course and began complying with court rulings that billionaire owner Elon Musk had previously vowed to resist.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been in a months-long feud with Musk, gave Xu the green light to resume work in Latin America’s largest country immediately.

Moraes said in the decision that X met all the necessary conditions to start doing business in the country again.

The platform formerly known as Twitter has been suspended in Brazil, one of its biggest and most desirable markets, since late August after it failed to comply with court orders related to moderating hate speech and failed to appoint a legal representative in the country, as required by law.

Musk, who denounced the orders as censorship and called Moraes a “dictator,” has begun to shift his stance in recent weeks, with his social media network blocking court-flagged accounts, wiretapping a local representative and paying outstanding fines.

In his decision on Tuesday, Moraes ruled that Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel must work to allow Xu to come back online within 24 hours. Users in Brazil were still unable to access the platform as of 7 p.m. local time.

Via his Global Affairs account, X said he was proudly returning to Brazil, adding that he would “continue to defend freedom of speech, within the limits of the law” in the countries where he operates.

The Brazilian dispute was one of a series of recent clashes between Musk, who sees himself as a champion of free speech, and governments, including Australia and the United Kingdom, which want to prevent the spread of misinformation online.

Brazil’s communications minister said Tuesday that X’s decision to pay the fines and comply with court orders was a “victory for the country.”

“We have shown the world that our laws should be respected here, whoever it is,” Juscelino Filho said in a statement.

A court battle

X’s suspension initially followed the individual conviction of Moraes, who has led a local crusade against perceived attacks on democracy and the political use of disinformation.

His verdict was later unanimously upheld by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court and its chief justice.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also expressed support for the move, saying that people doing business in Brazil must follow local laws and that the world “doesn’t have to put up with Musk’s far-right ideology just because he’s rich.”

However, the judges indicated at the time that they would be open to reconsidering the suspension if X complied with the rulings. The social media company initially said it would not comply with them because they were “illegal”.

Brazil is X’s sixth largest market globally and had about 21.5 million users in April, according to data platform Statista. During the suspension, many users migrated to competing platforms such as Bluesky-owned Threads and Meta Platforms.

X had a legal representative in Brazil until mid-August, when it decided to close its offices in the country due to court orders, which it called “censorship orders,” without appointing someone to take over legal responsibilities for the company locally.

That ultimately triggered the suspension, in a court battle that also affected another prominent Musk-controlled business, satellite internet provider Starlink, whose accounts Moraes temporarily froze to cover fines imposed on Xu.

X’s new representative, lawyer Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao, was tapped in late September, when X also said he had begun blocking court-ordered accounts.

Earlier this month, the company paid fines it had previously defied, opening the door for a return to the country.

In addition to the suspension, X remained out of office in Brazil during the last month of the country’s municipal elections, which were held on Sunday.

However, in many cities, including Sao Paulo – Latin America’s largest city – the mayoral elections will go into a runoff on October 27.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)