Brazil judge blocks Starlink accounts as X suspension deadline looms

At issue is whether de Moraes can order the social network to block certain accounts, a request that Musk denounces as censorship.

Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes has moved to block the financial accounts of billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink as an ongoing feud leaves his social media platform X on the brink of being taken down in the country.

Starlink confirmed on Thursday it received an order from the judge that prevents the company from conducting financial transactions in Brazil and said in a post on X that it would address the order legally.

De Moraes’s decision on Thursday to sanction Starlink, the satellite broadband unit of Musk’s SpaceX, is a response to the lack of legal representatives in Brazil for the X social network, a Supreme Court source told the Reuters news agency.

Musk said de Moraes “is an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge” in response to a post on the subject.

Starlink said in its X post that de Moraes had issued the order “in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the constitution of Brazil”.

At issue is whether de Moraes can order the social network to block certain accounts accused of spreading lies and distortions, a request Musk has denounced as censorship.

De Moraes on Wednesday night ordered Musk to name a legal representative for X, formerly known as Twitter, in Brazil within 24 hours or face its suspension in the country.

Earlier this month, X announced it would close operations and fire its staff in Latin America’s largest economy due to what it called “censorship orders” from de Moraes, while keeping its service available for Brazilian users.

At the time, X claimed de Moraes secretly threatened one of the company’s legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to take down some content from its platform.

In Wednesday’s ruling about X, de Moraes said that under the country’s law regulating internet issues, companies that do not respect Brazilian legislation or the confidentiality of private information could have their activities temporarily suspended.

The Supreme Court posted a screenshot of Wednesday’s court decision on its X account, tagging Musk’s and X’s Global Government Affairs accounts.

Crackdown

Thursday’s move is the latest development in a months-long feud between Musk and de Moraes, who has led a crackdown on misinformation and disinformation in the nation of more than 200 million people and ordered the suspension of more than 100 X accounts in recent years.

Some of those belong to supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the 2022 election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after peddling unsubstantiated claims that Brazil’s electronic voting machines are prone to fraud.

In April, de Moraes accused Musk of waging a “disinformation campaign” and disrespecting Brazil’s sovereignty after the Tesla CEO decided to stop complying with the court orders to block certain X accounts.

Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, has accused de Moraes of stifling free speech and violating Brazil’s constitution.