X, the social networking service owned by Elon Musk, is confronted with substantial daily financial penalties after Brazil's Supreme Court ruled the company did not fulfill a demand to restrict access to its platform in the nation. The service, known earlier as Twitter, regained availability to Brazilian users despite a ban instituted on August 30.
Legal Proceedings and Monetary Punishments
Justice Alexandre de Moraes has set a financial penalty of 5 million reais (approximately $922,250) per day for the platform's non-adherence to court orders. The accusation from the court is that X bypassed the judicial restriction deliberately, a maneuver that was confirmed in a post on the platform. Ongoing regulatory action is part of the judiciary's broader campaign to tackle the dissemination of material that counters democratic values found on X.
When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America was no longer accessible to our team. To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) September 19, 2024
Access to X was briefly restored in Brazil thanks to a software modification that involved external cloud providers like Cloudflare, Fastly, and Edgeuno. The adjustment enabled users to reach the site without the need for a VPN, which is similarly prohibited in Brazil. While X attributed this to an “inadvertent and temporary service restoration,” Moraes perceived it as an intentional breach of the court's directive.
Implications and Enforcement Strategies
Brazil's communications authority, Anatel, collaborated with Cloudflare to pinpoint the method allowing access to X. The decision highlights the difficulties technology firms face when dealing with varied legal requirements across nations. If the platform neglects to settle the fines, the ruling states that Starlink, Musk's satellite internet company linked with X, would bear the financial liability in the absence of a formal legal entity for X in Brazil.
The short-lived return of the platform became a tool for ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who used the chance to critique Moraes and side with Musk. Bolsonaro's remarks illustrate the ongoing conflict involving the judiciary's attempts to control misinformation and inflammatory content online. Brazil's Supreme Court upheld Moraes's stance, referring to X's unwillingness to eliminate accounts promoting falsehoods and stoking unrest.
– Parabenizo a todos pela pressão que fazem as engrenagens circular na defesa da democracia no Brasil. Desistir não e uma opção e os senhores é que alimentam um futuro próspero a nosso país.
-Nos últimos dias, os brasileiros testemunharam acontecimentos que lançaram ainda mais…
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) September 18, 2024
X vs. Brazil and Global Struggles
In September 2024, Brazil's Supreme Court sustained the ban against the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The decision follows X's failure to designate a new legal representative in Brazil by the stipulated court deadline.
The restriction on X began earlier the same month, stemming from an ongoing dispute between Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and X's owner, Elon Musk. The conflict started in April when Justice Moraes ordered various accounts to be suspended for spreading disinformation, targeting primarily supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
With X out of reach, Brazilians have pivoted to other microblogging services such as Bluesky and Threads. Bluesky's user count has skyrocketed to over 9 million, fueled by an addition of 3 million newcomers. The 50% spike occurred in just over a week following a ban on X, formerly known as Twitter, by a Brazilian court. Bluesky's surge has been dramatic since its started to benefit from X's ban.
Musk has also hit out at lawmakers in Australia, calling them fascists over a propsed change to legislation. The proposal gives Australia's communication regulator the power to supervise digital entities, and if self-regulation efforts fail, a binding code of conduct may be initiated.
Musk's willingness to attack opponents and overall moderation on X has led to criticism from Meta's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg. He pointed out that individuals like Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson, banned from Meta services, have shifted to platforms like X and Telegram, which could energize far-right movements in the UK.
