Elon Musk’s X Asks Brazil’s Top Court To Reinstate Service

The high profile clash between Elon Musk and Brazil’s top court took another twist this week, with X (formerly Twitter) asking for the nationwide ban to be struck down.

Reuters, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter, reported on Thursday that X has formally requested Brazil’s Supreme Court to allow it to resume service in the country, despite it previously condemning the “illegal orders” of Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes.

According to the Reuters report, X sent the Supreme Court a document proving that it has formally signed lawyer Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as its Brazil legal representative, and has blocked nine accounts under investigation in a hate speech and misinformation probe.

Brazilian investigation

The Reuters source also said that X had pointed out that 18 million reais ($3.31 million) in a previously imposed fine had been paid.

There was no immediate comment from X on the request to Brazil’s Supreme Court, and nor was there an update on X’s Global Government Affairs account about the request.

The issue began after Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes had begun an investigation into X in April 2024 for obstruction of justice, after Elon Musk said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked.

Judge Moraes had ordered X to block certain accounts that he has accused of spreading disinformation while he carried out an investigation into “digital militias” during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.

The X accounts were thought to be linked to extreme-right movements which posted content related to riots on 8 January 2023, when thousands of supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace in scenes reminiscent of the 6 January 2020 riots in the US capitol.

Musk clash

Musk however refused, and denounced the orders as censorship and vowed not to comply with them. Musk also refused to appoint a new legal representative of the company in Brazil as required by law in that country, and he refused to settle any outstanding daily fines within 24 hours.

Musk also called for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to “resign or be impeached”.

In August X closed down its office in Brazil “effective immediately” due to “censorship orders” by the judge, and laid off its staff in the country.

But Brazil’s Supreme Court and Justice Alexandre de Moraes did not back down in the face of Musk’s public tirades, and in early September it shut down access to X in Brazil (one of its largest and most coveted markets).

Backing down

Justice de Moraes lifted freezes that had been imposed on the Brazilian bank accounts belonging to SpaceX subsidiary Starlink and X, following the transfer of 18.35 million reais ($3.3m, £2.5m) from the accounts into the national treasury.

And last week there was other signs that X was starting to back down, with X’s lawyers saying the firm would present a Brazilian legal representative to the local Supreme Court “very soon”.

But X also angered the Supreme Court last week, when access to X was ‘temporarily’ restored in Brazil after the update used cloud services offered by third parties, such as Cloudflare, Fastly and Edgeuno.

X quickly said it was an “inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users,” and it expected the platform would “be inaccessible again shortly.”

Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes however accused X of a “willful, illegal and persistent” effort to circumvent a court-ordered block.

“There is no doubt that X, under Elon Musk’s direct command, again intends to disrespect Brazil’s Judiciary,” Moraes wrote last week, saying the platform had a “strategy” to circumvent the ban.

Now X has appointed Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as its Brazil legal representative, and requested that access to the social media platform be restored in the country.