On Tuesday, the highest judicial authority in Brazil, the Supreme Court, announced that Elon Musk’s social media platform, referred to here as ‘X’, has been given the green light to resume operations within the nation. This decision brings closure to a protracted conflict that has seen ‘X’ at odds with Brazilian authorities for several months. The contention arose when ‘X’ defied judicial mandates to deactivate certain user accounts. Additionally, the platform lacked a legally designated representative in Brazil to respond to judicial orders.
For a period spanning five weeks, Brazilian legal institutions instructed local internet service providers to prevent users in the country from accessing ‘X’. This was a direct consequence of the platform’s non-compliance with the court’s directives concerning the removal of specific accounts. Moreover, the absence of a legal representative for ‘X’ in Brazil meant that there was no one to formally address the court’s requirements. Musk publicly criticized the Brazilian Supreme Court, accusing it of suppressing conservative viewpoints, a practice he has vocally opposed internationally. Despite his resistance, Musk eventually yielded to the judicial pressure and agreed to the court’s terms.
In a notable incident that occurred in September, ‘X’ managed to temporarily circumvent the ban and became accessible to users once again. This was a result of the platform’s transition to using Cloudflare as its cloud service provider. The CEO of Cloudflare remarked that the evasion of the ban by ‘X’ was merely a “coincidence.” Nevertheless, this ‘coincidence’ came with a hefty price tag for Musk, who incurred costs close to $2 million. Musk has since agreed to comply with the court’s demands by removing certain user accounts and appointing a legal representative in Brazil, as initially reported by Bloomberg.
