X, the social media platform incipiently known as Twitter, has announced that it will terminate its operations in Brazil. Despite this shutdown, the platform will still remain open to Brazilian users.
The decision came amid a legal dispute with Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes ordered that some accounts on X be blocked in an investigation into election disinformation and so-called “digital militias.”
X’s global government affairs team issued a statement in response, saying that Moraes had “threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders.”
Safety concerns lead to shut down
X cited the safety of its staff and made an instant call to suspend its operations in the country. On the other hand, service will remain open to the public in Brazil.
The incident got out of hand earlier this year when Moraes launched a criminal probe against X owner Elon Musk. This was after Musk had promised to end the restriction on targeted accounts, only to backtrack and abide by the court’s ruling.
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Targeted accounts and political implications
Among the victims were a pastor, one sitting parliamentarian, and the wife of one former parliamentarian. In X’s previous post, this clarified the political bearings.
Meanwhile, supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who lost his 2022 re-election bid and is now legally barred from holding political office for eight years, filed lawsuits for the impeachment of Moraes.
Musk’s criticism and final statement from X
Musk, who visited Brazil in 2022 to meet with Bolsonaro, has made public criticisms of Moraes, calling for him to step down or be impeached. In today’s final statement, X reiterated that it was not theirs, nor any entity or individual, to decide content blocking; rather, that of the Brazilian people: “Democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.”
This is a milestone in the battle between social media platforms and governments over freedom of speech and content regulation.