Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, went offline once more in Brazil on Thursday, following a court order from the country’s Supreme Court. The decision comes a day after X had resumed its services, violating an existing judicial ban that had previously prohibited access to the platform. Internet service providers confirmed that the app was inaccessible again just before 4:00 PM local time.
The Supreme Court had ordered X to suspend access after finding that the company had “unlawfully, persistently, and intentionally” disobeyed judicial rulings. The court warned of a potential daily fine exceeding $900,000 should the company continue to flout the law. X was initially banned last month, but access unexpectedly returned on Wednesday, prompting outrage from the Brazilian government, which described the move as a willful defiance of the suspension. X attributed the return of its service to an “inadvertent and temporary” update.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who issued the latest order, characterized X’s actions as “recalcitrant” and directed Brazil’s telecommunications agency, Anatel, to take immediate steps to block access to the platform once again. This high-profile judge has been at the forefront of Brazil’s campaign against disinformation and has engaged in a contentious relationship with Elon Musk over the platform’s management.
The controversy began when Elon Musk refused to remove several right-wing accounts accused of disseminating fake news and failed to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil as required by court orders. The suspension of X has ignited a heated debate regarding freedom of expression and the regulatory reach of social media platforms both in Brazil and globally.
The social media platform had boasted over 22 million users in Brazil prior to the ban. In addition to the suspension of X, Judge Moraes has frozen the assets of both X and Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, which has been operational in Brazil since 2022, primarily serving remote communities in the Amazon. Recently, Moraes ordered the transfer of approximately $3 million from Elon Musk’s companies to cover fines imposed on X for non-compliance with court directives.
Elon Musk has publicly criticized Moraes in social media posts, referring to him as an “evil dictator” and likening him to “Voldemort,” the notorious villain from the “Harry Potter” series. The tension has only escalated as internet providers noted that X briefly became accessible again on Wednesday due to an automatic update that allowed the app to use changing IP addresses via a service called Cloudflare, complicating efforts to block the platform. However, ABRINT, the association of internet providers, reported on Thursday that X had ceased using Cloudflare.
While X claimed that its service restoration was unintentional, Anatel accused the company of acting with “deliberate intention” to bypass the Supreme Court’s ruling. The agency expressed optimism that it had identified a mechanism to effectively block access to X in the future. Additionally, individuals using technological methods like virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent the ban could face fines of up to $9,000, as outlined in Moraes’s ruling.
