X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, has announced the immediate closure of its office and operations in Brazil, citing threats and censorship demands from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to X, Moraes secretly threatened the company’s legal representative in Brazil with arrest if they did not comply with his orders to remove certain content from the platform.The company stated, ‘As a result, to protect the safety of our team, we have decided to close our operations in Brazil, effective immediately. The X service continues to be available to the Brazilian population’. This decision affects approximately 40 employees who were involved in X’s operations in Brazil.Elon Musk has strongly criticized Moraes’ actions, describing them as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘incompatible with democratic government’. Musk stated, ‘The decision to close the X office in Brazil was a difficult one, but if we had agreed to Alexandre’s (illegal) demands for secret censorship and the release of private information, there would be no way to explain our actions without embarrassing ourselves’.This situation has escalated tensions between X and the Brazilian judiciary, with broader implications for freedom of speech and the role of social media platforms in Brazil. X claims that complying with Moraes’ demands would require them to violate Brazilian, Argentine, US, and international laws.The closure announcement comes amid an ongoing investigation launched by Moraes in April 2024 into whether Musk was obstructing justice in relation to his social media platform. The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, where Moraes is based, has not immediately responded to requests for comment on these developments.
Key points
- X has closed its office in Brazil due to alleged threats and censorship demands from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
- Elon Musk claims that complying with Moraes’ demands would require X to violate multiple countries’ laws.
- The closure affects about 40 employees, but X’s service will remain available to Brazilian users.
- This situation highlights tensions between social media platforms and judicial authority in Brazil.
Contradictions👾While X claims to be closing its operations in Brazil, it also states that its service will remain available to Brazilian users, which seems contradictory.
