Tech mogul Elon Musk accused one of Brazil's Supreme Court justices of carrying out "censorship orders" by blocking his social media platform.
ADVERTISEMENTBrazil's Supreme Court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold the decision by one of its justices to ban Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.
Previously called Twitter, the ban on X began on Saturday after Musk refused to name a legal representative in Brazil in August, saying that the order by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was trying to enforce censorship.
But Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said in an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo over the weekend that "a company that refuses to name a legal representative in Brazil cannot operate in Brazilian territory".
The collective support of the other Supreme Court justices is seen as undermining the efforts of Musk and his supporters to portray de Moraes as a renegade.
Tens of millions of people in Brazil use X but since the ban, many social media users have switched to Meta’s Threads or BlueSky, which was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, who also started Twitter.
"At peak traffic over these past few days, we’ve had 20x the usual load on our infrastructure!" Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said in a post on the platform.
"The team has done a great job of keeping all systems online, but bear with us if you see some slow loading times," she added.
Brazilian users are also setting records for activities such as follows and likes, Bluesky said on Friday.
X alternatives on the rise
Users of other platforms welcomed Brazilians to their ranks over the weekend.
"Hello literally everyone in Brazil," a user wrote on Threads. "We're a lot nicer than Twitter here," said another.
X is not as popular in Brazil as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. However, it remains an important platform on which Brazilians engage in political debates and is highly influential among politicians, journalists, and other opinion-makers.
De Moraes said X will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and he also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais (€8,000) for people or companies using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access it.
Some legal experts questioned the grounds for that decision and how it would be enforced. Others suggested the move was authoritarian.
The Brazilian Bar Association said on Friday in a statement that it would request the Supreme Court review the fines imposed on all citizens using VPNs or other means to access X without due process.
Brazil's bar association argued that sanctions should never be imposed summarily before ensuring an adversarial process and the right to a full defence.
ADVERTISEMENT"I’ve used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social networks," Maurício Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said on the platform before its shutdown.
"It never occurred to me that this type of tool would be banned in Brazil. It’s dystopian".
A search on Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they are logging on from outside the country.
"Tyrants want to turn Brazil into another commie dictatorship but we won’t back down. I repeat: do not vote on those who don’t respect free speech. Orwell was right," right-wing congressman Nikolas Ferreira, one of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s closest allies, published before X went off.
ADVERTISEMENTMusk replied with an emoji suggesting agreement: "100".
Ferreira is a 28-year-old YouTuber who received the most votes of the 513 elected federal lawmakers in the 2022 election.
De Moraes ordered the block of his social media accounts after a mob of Bolsonaro supporters attacked Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court in January 2023 seeking to overturn the election.
'Blow to freedom and legal security'
Lawmaker Bia Kicis said "the consequences of Alexandre de Moraes' attacks to Elon Musk, X, and Starlink will be regrettable for Brazilians".
ADVERTISEMENTShe also urged Rodrigo Pacheco, the president of the country’s Senate, to act.
Kicis has repeatedly urged Pacheco to open impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court justice.
"We need to leave this state of apathy and stop the worst from happening," the pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker, whose profiles were temporarily blocked by de Moraes in 2022, also said.
The former president said on Saturday on Instagram that X's departure from Brazil was "another blow to our freedom and legal security".
ADVERTISEMENT"It not only affects our freedom of expression but also undermines the confidence of international companies in operating on Brazilian soil, with impacts ranging from national security to the quality of the information that reaches our citizens," Bolsonaro added.
On Friday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva backed de Moraes’ decision and took aim at Musk for positioning himself as though he was above the law during an interview with Radio MaisPB.
"Any citizen, from anywhere in the world, who has investments in Brazil, is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian laws. Therefore, if the Supreme Court has made a decision for citizens to comply with certain things, they either have to comply or take another course of action," Lula said.
"It’s not because the guy has a lot of money that he can disrespect it".
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