Following months of harassing X which led to the closure of the social media company's office in Brazil, the country's tyrannical Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes has this week, ordered shutdown of access to the platform within the country, and frozen the financial accounts of Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite internet service, Starlink.
The fascist Judge also ordered Google and Apple to remove X from their app stores in the country within 5 days. Anyone caught using a VPN to gain access to X, will face a fine of nearly $9,000 a day, according to the order.
The latest escalation comes after X refused to comply with a series of "unconstitutional" secret court orders demanding the social media platform censor prominent civil rights activists and elected opposition party leaders critical of the ruling far-left government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Moraes had set a 24-hour deadline for X to name its legal representative in Brazil by 2300 UTC on Thursday. The Supreme Court posted a screen shot of Wednesday's court order on its X account, tagging Musk's and X's global government affairs accounts. Before closing its office in Brazil, X had revealed that Moraes secretly threatened one of its legal representatives with arrest if the social media company did not comply with his "unconstitutional" censorship demands.
Moments after the deadline passed Thursday, X global affairs account wrote that it expected the fascist judge to order the shutdown of access to the platform in the country "soon." The Judge ordered shutdown of X Friday.
"Earlier this week we received an order from Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice @alexandre de Moraes that freezes Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions in that country," the company wrote on X, Thursday. "This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X. It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil. We intend to address the matter legally. Today, Starlink is connecting more than a quarter million customers in Brazil—from the Amazon to Rio de Janeiro—including small businesses, schools, and first responders, among many others. We are proud of the impact Starlink is making in communities across the country, and the Starlink team is doing everything possible to ensure their service is not interrupted.
The Brazilian military had written in a letter, of the vital importance of Starlink to their operations and strategic readiness across the nation. Canceling the contract, it warned, could compromise critical missions, including those of Special Border Platoons in remote areas.
In a series of posts Friday, responding to other X users, Musk wrote: "Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes. The attacks this year on free speech are unprecedented in the 21st century. It will happen in America too if Kamala/Walz gain power. Just listen to what they’ve said. The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries. One day, that criminal posing as a judge will occupy the prison cell of the people he has wrongfully convicted."
Musk had in earlier posts Thursday, called Moraes an “outright criminal” and a “dictator;” and accused the judge of attempting to use Starlink as leverage to force X to comply with his orders.
"SpaceX and X are two completely different companies with different shareholders," Musk wrote. "I own about 40% of SpaceX, so this absolutely illegal action by the dictator @alexandre improperly punishes other shareholders and the people of Brazil."
On her part, X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote: "This is a sad day for X users around the world, especially those in Brazil, who are being denied access to our platform. I wish it did not have to come to this – it breaks my heart. The Brazilian Constitution says, "Any and all censorship of a political, ideological and artistic nature is forbidden." I hope for a day when the Brazilian government will live up to the Constitution that the Brazilian people ratified. But until there is change in Brazil, X will be shut down. We hope to be back soon."
US embassy in Brazil said in a statement it is "monitoring monitoring the situation between the Supreme Court and the X platform. ...We emphasize that freedom of expression is a fundamental pillar in a healthy democracy."
However critics including Musk believe President Joe Biden administration officials are complicit in the prosecution of X, given their own history of demanding censorship on the social media platform and others. Many have pointed out that other platforms including Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, TikTok and Google have been quietly complying with Moraes' "unconstitutional" and tyrannical censorship demands.
