Social network X faces a new and hefty fine after apparently defying a judge-ordered ban.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered social media platform X to remove access to its website after service was restored despite a judge’s ban or face a daily fine of more than $900,000.
The social network, formerly known as Twitter, was banned last month in Latin America’s largest nation as part of a crackdown on misinformation, but access to the phone app returned on Wednesday.
X said the return of its service was “inadvertent and temporary,” but the government accused the company of deliberately violating the suspension order.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes said X will face a daily fine of 5 million reais ($913,000) until he complies with the order to suspend his service.
The social media platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil.
Last month, a judge ordered X suspended after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading fake news.
The suspension has fueled a fierce debate over freedom of expression and the limits of social media, both at home and abroad.
The judge also froze the assets of X and Musk’s satellite internet operator Starlink, which has been operating in Brazil since 2022, especially in remote communities in the Amazon.
Internet providers explained that X had been accessible again after an automatic update of the phone app.
New software allows the app to use identifying IP addresses that change constantly, making it much harder to block. The National Telecommunications Agency, also called Anatel, said on Thursday that it had “identified a mechanism that we hope” will block the service again.
De Moraes also ruled that anyone using “technological subterfuge” such as virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the blocked site could be fined up to $9,000.
X Issue History
This is not the first time a country has banned the X platform. China was the first country to ban it in June 2009, when it was still called Twitter, two days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Last month, Venezuela ordered a 10-day lockdown over a disputed presidential election in the country after electoral authorities declared incumbent President Nicolas Maduro the winner. Political tensions escalated following the election results.
Why has Brazil banned X?
In January 2023, after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, incited by false allegations of electoral fraud, stormed the National Congress, Brazil’s Supreme Court issued an order for X and other social media platforms to restrict accounts linked to fake news and hate speech.
In April, de Moraes again asked X to block several accounts accused of spreading misinformation about Bolsonaro’s defeat in the 2022 general election. This time, Musk refused and removed X’s legal representative in Brazil in protest.
Under Brazilian law, foreign companies doing business in Brazil must have a legal representative in the country to act as a liaison between the company and local authorities.
