BRASILIA (WS News) – Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered Elon Musk-owned social media platform X not to try to circumvent a previous ruling suspending the platform in the country, at risk of a daily fine of 5 million reais ($921,726.95), a court decision showed Thursday.
X became accessible to many users in Brazil on Wednesday as an update to its communications network circumvented the court-ordered block. A 5 million-real fine has been already imposed because of that, according to the decision.
In August, after a months-long dispute between Musk and Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court ordered Brazil’s mobile and internet service providers to block the platform and users were cut off within hours.
“There is no doubt that X, under Elon Musk’s direct command, again intends to disrespect Brazil’s Judiciary,” Moraes wrote in his latest order issued late on Wednesday, saying the platform had a “strategy” in place to circumvent the ban.
CNN Brasil reported on Thursday, citing lawyers helping with the platform’s defense in the country, that X was now planning to comply with Brazilian court rulings to resume its service in the country.
Courts have previously blocked accounts implicated in probes of alleged spreading of distorted news and hate, which Musk has denounced as censorship, and they have ordered X to name a local representative as required by Brazilian law.
The social media platform did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
X said on Wednesday that a switch in network providers had resulted in “an inadvertent and temporary service restoration” in Brazil, adding that it maintains “efforts to work with the Brazilian government” to resume its service there “very soon”.
