X closes operations in Brazil, blames judge’s ‘censorship’ orders

Social media platform X is shuttering its operations in Brazil “immediately” after the country’s top judge allegedly threatened to arrest the company’s legal representative in secret for not complying with orders to shut down certain accounts, the company posted Saturday.

X’s global government affairs team on Saturday accused the judge of “censorship” and posted what the company said are documents of his latest orders as a means to “expose his actions.”

“Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,” X’s global government affairs team said.

Even after closing operations in Brazil, X remains available there. As of early 2023, Brazil had nearly 20 million X users, making it the fourth-largest market for the platform.

Saturday’s move comes months after X owner Elon Musk announced the platform would defy orders from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to block accounts the judge said were spreading disinformation.

Moraes soon after added Musk to the list of targets in an ongoing probe into whether there is an organized threat on social media to undermine Brazilian democracy.

X and Moraes did not immediately respond to Washington Post requests for comment Saturday. In a post on X, Musk said that it was a “difficult” decision to close the Brazil office, “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.”

Since Musk acquired the social media platform in 2022, the company has rolled back its online moderation amid layoffs and resignations, although X still engages in some content-labeling.

Musk has been outspoken about his distaste of Moraes, one of the world’s most aggressive combatants of disinformation. The tech billionaire has called the judge a “brutal dictator” and “Brazil’s Darth Vader.”

Moraes, who also oversees Brazil’s top election court and is seen by some as one of the most powerful people in the country, has been granted expanded powers to fight false claims online. He has ordered social media companies to remove scores of accounts and issued arrest warrants against dozens of figures.

In his initial orders to X earlier this year, Moraes wrote that “social media networks are not a lawless land.” The judge has also accused Musk of waging a “disinformation campaign” against the court.

The standoff has been seen as the latest test in the global debate of free speech vs. fake news. It is a crime in Brazil – Latin America’s largest democracy – to attack people or democracy using disinformation.

X’s government affairs team said Saturday that Moraes’ “actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.”