X shuts Brazil operations over 'censorship' orders: Musk

Social media website X, formerly Twitter, will wind up its local operations in Brazil after a legal battle at the Supreme Court over the platform's rights and responsibilities, owner Elon Musk said Sunday

But the company said the website would remain available to users in Brazil. 

While X argued that it was protecting free speech and standing up against "illegal secret censorship," Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes argued he was standing up against disinformation and tyranny in Brazil.

In April, Moraes had ordered an investigation into Musk, accusing him of "criminal instrumentalization" of the platform. An order seen by AFP detailed that Musk had reactivated banned accounts and was then threatened with a fine for each instance.

This comes roughly a week after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro banned the website for a 10-day period over an election result dispute and accused Musk of inciting hate, civil war, and death.

Musk has been increasingly outspoken on Latin American politics, as he has on politics in general, of late. 

What did X say?

"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," X's Global Government Affairs department said in a post on Saturday.

"We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes," the post read. "His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make — democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes." 

The post said X's numerous appeals went unheard at the court while the public was not informed of the orders. The Brazilian office's staff had "no responsibility or control" over whether content was blocked from the platform.

The decision to close down local operations was taken to protect the safety of the staff, it said.

Billionaire Musk, in his post, said the decision was "difficult, but, if we had agreed to Alexandre's (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed." 

What did Moraes say?

Moraes has previously ordered several social media accounts Brazil's authorities suspected of spreading disinformation, including those of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who tried discrediting the nation's voting system after he lost the 2022 election.

"Freedom of expression doesn't mean freedom of aggression," Moraes has said. "It doesn't mean the freedom to defend tyranny."

Judge Moraes presides over Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal which declared Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office again last year, saying that he had spread disinformation about the election system.

mk/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)