Brazilian Supreme Court panel upholds order to block Elon Musk’s X
RIO DE JANEIRO – A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted Monday to uphold a decision by one justice last week to block the social network X across the country because its owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with court orders to suspend certain accounts.
The five-justice panel voted unanimously to back the order, issuing strongly worded opinions saying that the blackout of X complied with Brazilian law and that it was necessary to enforce the nation’s rules against a foreign company that was flouting them.
The ban on X is the culmination of a monthslong feud between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, over what can be said online. Moraes has said Musk is illegally obstructing his work to clean up the Brazilian internet and remove hate speech and attacks on democracy, while Musk says Moraes is censoring free speech.
Monday’s vote was an important affirmation of the ban because Musk has criticized the action against his company as an abuse of power by a single, crusading judge. The panel’s ruling Monday shows that four other Brazilian justices side with their colleague.
The vote gives the ban firmer legal standing, but it is likely to still head to the full court for a vote by all 11 justices.
There were some signs of discomfort with one part of Moraes’ order: the threat to impose hefty fines on people in Brazil who employed common privacy software called virtual private networks, or VPNs, to circumvent the ban and use X.
Justice Luiz Fux said that people should not be fined unless they are using X to spread “racism, fascism or Nazism, obstruct criminal investigations or incite crimes in general.” He added that he might not vote in support of the order if it goes to the full court.
Moraes has slightly amended his order to add that people would face fines if they employed VPNs to use X and “engage in conduct that defrauds the court decision.” It is unclear how that would affect enforcement.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
