A Brazilian judge on Friday ordered internet providers to block citizens' access to X after Elon Musk defied orders to suspend certain accounts in the country, according to The New York Times.
Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the closure of his account after Twitter refused to suspend the accounts of his political opponents, X's Global Affairs tweeted.
“These opponents include duly elected senators and a 16-year-old girl,” the platform reads.
Soon, Judge Alexandre de Moraes is expected to order the closure of X in Brazil, simply because we have not complied with his unlawful orders to censor his political opponents, including a duly elected senator and a 16-year-old girl.
When we tried…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 29, 2024
The closure follows Musk's closure of the Brazilian office on August 17 after Moraes first threatened the company.
In a tweet, the company said Moraes had frozen the bank accounts of its Brazilian legal representative after he resigned from X at its request. (Related article: 'Dictator' Judge Punishes Elon Musk's Ex-Husband for Refusing to Follow 'Illegal Orders')
Moraes appears to have ordered the closure because Mr X does not have legal representation in the country, The New York Times reported. Reported.
“Our challenges to his clearly illegal conduct have been dismissed or ignored, and Justice de Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are unwilling or unable to stand up to him,” the company wrote.
According to the Times, Moraes also froze the finances of another Musk-owned company, SpaceX's Starlink, in Brazil.
The ban is the latest in a series of disturbing incidents regarding free speech and censorship.
In early August, a senior European Commission official wrote Musk a letter warning him that he needed to comply with the EU's Digital Services Act.
“We are monitoring potential risks in the EU surrounding the distribution of content that may incite violence, hatred or racism in the context of major political or social events around the world, such as election-related debates or interviews,” European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said in a letter to Musk.
The bigger the audience, the greater the responsibility #DSA
I am writing this letter due to the risk of potentially harmful content spreading on 🇪🇺 in connection with events with large audiences around the world. Elon Musk
📧⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P1IgxdPLzn
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) August 12, 2024
More recently, French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron's government jailed Pavel Durov, the owner of encrypted messaging app Telegram, charging him with 12 charges related to the platform's content moderation process.
Durov, French Government saidHe was arrested on suspicion of “participating in the management of an online platform that enabled illegal transactions as a member of an organized crime group.”
