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Elon Musk’s X escalated its war of words with Brazil’s supreme court over alleged censorship on Saturday and vowed to “immediately” shut down its local operations, in the billionaire’s latest intervention on the world stage.
In a post on X, the social media company said that Judge Alexandre de Moraes threatened his legal representative in the country with arrest on Friday for failing to comply with a “secret order” to remove certain accounts.
A letter enclosed in the mail, which X described as a court order, ordered the individual to implement the measures within 24 hours or face a fine and prison.
The court said neither it nor the judge would make any statements on the matter.
“Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court going unheard, the Brazilian public not being informed of these orders, and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than uphold the law or due process,” X’s global government affairs account wrote.
“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have decided to immediately close our operations in Brazil.”
X remains accessible in Brazil, the company said. It is unclear how many employees it has in the region.
Musk wrote on X: “There is no question that Moraes must go. Having a ‘judge’ who repeatedly and egregiously violates the law is not justice at all.”
The high-profile intervention adds to tensions between the Supreme Court and Musk, a clash that has become emblematic of the billionaire entrepreneur’s recent meddling in foreign policy through the platform he purchased for $44 billion.
In recent years, Musk, a self-proclaimed free-speech advocate, has increasingly sided with right-wing politicians around the world, backing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and backing Argentine populist leader Javier Milei.
Things have escalated recently, with Musk attacking the UK government for its handling of anti-immigration protests and trading barbs with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, prompting the authoritarian socialist to block the platform in the country for 10 days.
While Musk’s comments have won him supporters among Brazilian conservatives, some lawmakers and analysts fear his interventions could fuel unrest.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief first lashed out at de Moraes earlier this year over the Supreme Court’s order to shut down what he said were right-wing accounts, calling on the judge to “resign or face impeachment.”
In response, de Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk, who has threatened to disobey court orders, on suspicion of obstruction of justice. Musk reignited the dispute this week by repeating accusations of censorship, aVsceker X’s government affairs account posted a document purportedly sent by de Moraes that ordered the platform to block certain users.
De Moraes has led a judicial crackdown on online disinformation, but he is a controversial figure who divides opinion in Latin America’s largest democracy.
Supporters say it helped secure democracy in the face of attacks on the reliability of the country’s electronic voting system by Bolsonaro, ahead of his unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2022. But followers of the far-right populist argue the judge has curbed free speech and unfairly targeted conservatives.
Brazil’s supreme court has faced discontent from the far-right movement and has been accused of overreaching by critics. Its premises were among the government buildings ransacked in January 2023 by radical Bolsonaro supporters who claimed, without evidence, that the election results were rigged in favor of winner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“We deeply regret having been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes,” X said Saturday. “His actions are incompatible with a democratic government. The Brazilian people have a choice to make: democracy or Alexandre de Moraes.”
More information from Beatriz Langella
