Elon Musk’s X will return to Brazil after complying with the demands of the Supreme Court – National
Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday approved the reinstatement of social media service X in Brazil, a month after it was shut down nationwide, according to a court document made public.
Elon Musk’s IX was blocked on Aug. 30 in the online world with a population of 213 million people – and one of the largest X markets, with estimates of its users ranging from 20 to 40 million. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after a months-long dispute with Musk over free speech, right-wing accounts and misinformation. Musk despised de Moraes, calling him an authority and a censor, although his decisions, including the suspension of X, were repeatedly supported by his peers.
Despite Musk’s public bravado, X ended up complying with all of de Moraes’ demands. It included blocking certain accounts on the platform, paying outstanding fines and naming a legal representative in the country. Failure to do this is what caused the suspension.
“The resumption of (X)’s activities in the territory of the country was conditional, only, on full compliance with Brazilian laws and full observance of the decisions of the Ministry of Justice, out of respect for the country’s sovereignty,” said de Moraes in a court document.
UX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Just two days before the ban, on August 28, X said he would remove all of his remaining employees from Brazil “immediately,” saying de Moraes had threatened to arrest his legal representative in the country, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição, if UX did not comply with the ban orders. accounts.
Brazilian law requires third parties to have a local attorney to receive notices of court decisions and to quickly take any necessary steps — specifically, in X’s case, the cancellation of accounts. Conceição was first named as X’s official representative in April and resigned four months later. The company called for the same job on September 20, according to a public report in the Sao Paulo commercial directory.
In an apparent attempt to protect Conceição from X’s possible violations – and the risk of imprisonment – a clause has been written into Conceição’s new representation agreement that he must follow Brazilian law and court decisions, and that any legal responsibility he takes on X’s behalf requires a prior order. from the company in writing, according to the company’s filing.
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Conceição works for BR4Business, a business services company. Its two-page website provides no insight into its operations or staff. “Something good is on the way,” the top of the site’s main page reads in English. Another page is its comprehensive privacy policy.
At its three listed offices in Sao Paulo, receptionists told the AP that the company’s offices are empty and employees are working remotely. Neither Conceição nor BR4Business returned multiple phone calls and emails from AP.
There is nothing illegal or suspicious about using a company like BR4Business for legal representation, but it shows that X is doing very little to work in the country, said Fabio de Sa e Silva, lawyer and associate professor of International and Brazilian Studies at. at the University of Oklahoma.
“It does not show the intention of communicating with the country in a true way. Take Meta, for example, with Google. They have an office, a government relations department, that should communicate directly with government authorities and discuss Brazilian regulatory policies regarding their businesses,” added Silva.
Indeed, it is rare for an established, powerful company like X to have only legal representation, said Carlos Affonso Souza, a lawyer and director of the Institute for Technology and Society, a Rio-based think tank. And that could be a problem going forward.
“The concern now is what comes next and how X, once back at work, will be able to meet the needs of the market and local authorities without creating new tensions,” he said.
Some of the Brazilian X users have migrated to other platforms, such as Meta’s Threads and, in particular, Bluesky. It is unclear how many of them will return to X. In a statement to the AP, Bluesky reported that it now has 10.6 million users and continues to see strong growth in Brazil. Bluesky has appointed a legal representative in the South American country.
Brazil was not the first country to ban X – far from it – but such action is usually limited to authoritarian regimes. The platform and its previous incarnation, Twitter, are banned in Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also suspended X in the past, usually to quell disagreements and unrest.
X’s conflict with Brazil has similarities to the company’s dealings with the Indian government three years ago, back when it was still called Twitter and before Musk bought it for $44 billion. In 2021, India threatened to arrest employees of Twitter (and Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp), for not complying with government requests to take down posts related to the farmers’ protests that rocked the country.
Musk’s decision to postpone his studies in Brazil after publicly criticizing de Moraes is not surprising, said Matteo Ceurvels, Latin America and Spain analyst for research firm Emarketer.
“This move was prudent, possibly driven by the economic consequences of losing access to millions of users in its third-largest market worldwide, as well as millions of dollars in advertising revenue,” Ceurvels said. “While X may not be a priority for many advertisers in Brazil, the platform needs them more than they need it.”
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Ortutay reported from San Francisco
