Thursday, August 29, 2024

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Issues Warning To Elon Musk


Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Issues Warning To Elon Musk

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice warned Elon Musk that X would be suspended in the South American country if he didn’t name a legal representative for the platform within 24 hours.

“The subpoena was published on X by the Court’s profile, in response to a post on August 17 by the platform’s Global Government Affairs account,” Brasil de Fato reports.

“Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions. Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,” X’s Global Government Affairs account wrote earlier this month.

“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately. The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes. His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes,” it added.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ summons alerting Musk that X has until about 8pm local time Thursday (7pm ET) to comply with the order comes after the platform announced earlier this month that it would close its operations in Brazil over what it called the judge’s “censorship orders.”

Brazilian officials have in recent months been cracking down on social media accounts that spread misinformation and hate speech.

Moraes announced in April that he was investigating Musk for obstruction of justice after the former X CEO vowed to defy a court order blocking certain accounts on his platform in Brazil.

The Brazilian Supreme Court subpoenaed Twitter and Elon Musk using Twitter itself. The warrant mandates Musk's company to establish a legal representative in 24 hours or be suspended from Brazil.




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