Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has escalated a feud with Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) over the dissemination of misinformation and inflammatory hard-right rhetoric on the platform.
In April, de Moraes pushed for the removal of accounts linked to former hard-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly spreading fake news and promoting political violence.
Earlier this month, X’s ‘Global Government Affairs’ account called them “censorship orders” that “are incompatible with democratic government”.
“Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions… The people of Brazil have a choice to make - democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes,” the account Tweeted.
X added that it is closing offices in the country “to protect the safety of our staff”, though the site remains active, for now.
On Wednesday, the Brazil Supreme Court’s X account responded to this post with a notification mandate issued by de Moraes.
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.
Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard,… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
The mandate gave X 24 hours to appoint a legal representative or else face “immediate suspension of the activities of the social network ‘X’ (formerly twitter)”.
X has until just after midnight, UK time, to comply with the order.
“In case of non-compliance with the determination, the decision could bring about suspension of the social media network’s activities in Brazil,” the court said in a statement.