Text updated with more information about the decision (Justice Alexandre de Moraes walked back on restrictions around VPN usage) and the actual block of the social platform in the country.
A Supreme Court Justice ordered, on Friday (August 30, 2024), the complete suspension of all access to X (formerly Twitter) across the entire Brazilian territory, in an unprecedented ruling against the social platform.
As telecom carriers began to implement the block, access to X began to cease at around midnight Brasilia time. The service, however, still works when using a VPN.
In a ruling issued on the afternoon of Aug. 31, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the president of Brazil's telecom regulator, Anatel, Carlos Manuel Baigorri, to ensure that necessary measures are taken and that internet companies are notified to block the application within 24 hours.
Moraes also said that Apple and Google need to “implement technological barriers that would make it impossible” to use X and VPN applications in Brazil. A few hours later he issued another ruling suspending that decision, after being criticized by experts for having disproportional effects on people and for being impossible to implement.
As the block of X/Twitter started being executed by telecom companies and internet service providers, Nucleo was last able to access to the app at exactly 12:08 AM of Aug. 31.
So far, for not complying with the court's decision, the company owes BRL 18,35 million (around $ 3.2 million) in fines, the decision said.
Moraes had previously ordered a freeze in bank accounts in Brazil of X and Starlink, a satellite company also owned by Elon Musk, in order to secure the payment of the fines. Another Justice, Cristiano Zanin, rejected a request by Starlink to unfreeze the accounts.
DECISIONS
In his decision, Moraes ordered the "the immediate, complete, and total suspension of the operations of 'X Brasil Internet Ltda' within national territory, until all court orders issued in these proceedings are complied with, the fines are duly paid, and a legal representative, either an individual or legal entity, is appointed in the national territory. In the case of a legal entity, its administrative officer must also be designated".
Moraes also ordered the imposition of a BRL50,000 (USD8,900) daily fine to people and organizations that use "technologic subterfuges" – such as VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) – to "continue communications via X". Apps like Proton VPN, Express VPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, TOTALVPN, Atlas VPN, Bitdefender VPN, he said, should be restricted in the Google and Apple stores.
But in a subsequent decision he walked back on that penalty.
"Considering the precautionary nature of the decision and the possibility that the company ‘X BRASIL INTERNET LTDA.’ or ELON MUSK, when notified, may fully comply with the judicial decisions, I suspend the execution of item 2 until there is a response from the parties in the case, in order to avoid unnecessary and reversible inconveniences to third-party companies."
CONTEXT
A Supreme Court Justice threatened this Wednesday (Aug. 28) to block X (formerly known as Twitter) in Brazil, after the company failed to appoint a local representative in the country, deepening the clash between the social network, Elon Musk and the Brazilian highest court.
The subpoena issued by the Supreme Court, which directly named Elon Musk, was strangely published as a post on the court's official account o X. The official post, a reply in another post made on Aug. 17 by X's Global Government Affairs profile, simply read "Mandado de Intimação", which in English means "Warrant for subpoena".
Alexandre de Moraes is a very polarizing figure in Brazil because of the way he has handled nation-wide investigations against online disinformation campaigns, especially from the far-right, in the past three years. Moraes and Twitter have been at odds since the Brazilian presidential election in 2022, with the Justice's tough stances.
Musk and far-right politicians and influencers in Brazil have been accusing Moraes for years of overreach of the judicial system. At the same time, left-wing figures in the country sided with Moraes and have since revered his decisions (when he was appointed, in 2017, by former president Michel Temer, the left objected this nomination).
On Aug. 17, X published a post in its Global Affairs page criticizing Moraes for threatening to arrest a legal representative of the company in Brazil – a little known lawyer called Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição – as well as a daily fine of BRL20,000 a day (around USD3,600) for not complying with judicial orders.
Since then, the company announced it would entirely close its office in Brazil.
