Aug. 30 (UPI) — Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the social media platform X across the country after it missed a deadline to name a local legal representative.
The decision was handed down two days after Moraes ordered X and its owner Elon Musk to appoint a Brazilian representative within 24 hours or face suspension until one is named.
According to Brazilian law, social media platforms must have someone available in their country to receive takedown notice information in alleged cases of misinformation.
X has not had someone in this position since it closed its offices in Brazil, alleging that Moraes had asked it to censor political opponents in violation of “Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law.”
Moraes on Friday ordered the “immediate, complete and integral suspension” of the social network’s operation until all court orders issued by him are complied with, fines are duly paid and a local representative appears in court.
He also ordered Apple and Google to take steps preventing the downloading of the X application from their app stores in Brazil and instituted a a fine of nearly $9,000 for any person or company in Brazil that uses X.
Anatel, the Brazilian national telecommunications agency, said it was notified by the Supreme Court of the decision “regarding the suspension of the operation of X (formerly Twitter) and is complying with the determinations contained therein.”
In his ruling, Moraes blasted what he called X’s lack of moderation policies, citing an “imminent danger” of extremist groups using the platform to disseminate “Nazi, racist, fascist, hateful and anti-democratic” messages leading up to this year’s municipal elections.”
X’s Global Government Affairs account wrote after the deadline expired that it expected Moraes would shut down X in Brazil because it would not “comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
“In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency,” it wrote. “Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders.
“To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech.”
Moraes had previously ordered all X accounts blamed for spreading disinformation, many of them supporters of former conservative president Jair Bolsonaro, must be blocked while they investigate the charges.
The Brazilian Supreme Court also froze the bank accounts of Musk’s space satellite service Starlink in the country.
Musk had threatened to reactivate the accounts and on Wednesday night shared a manipulated image showing Moraes behind the bars of a prison cell, threatening that one day “this picture of you in prison will be real.”