Elon Musk owned X (formerly Twitter) recently violated an order of the Brazilian Supreme Court as per which the company was restricted from circumventing the ban in the nation. If the microblogging platform would've circumvented, then it would have to pay a fine of $921,726.95 every single day. After an update to its communications network on Wednesday, X became accessible to a number of users in Brazil, which ended up being a direct violation of the order. Brazil has reportedly imposed a fine of $921,726.95 on X already.
X announced on Wednesday that a change in network providers led to “an inadvertent and temporary service restoration” in Brazil. The company added that it is continuing its efforts to collaborate with the Brazilian government to restore service “very soon”.
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Moraes Predicted This?
In August, following a prolonged dispute between Elon Musk and Brazilian judge Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court issued an order for Brazil's mobile and internet service providers to block access to the platform, leaving users disconnected within hours.
Moraes in his latest order wrote, “There is no doubt that X, under Elon Musk’s direct command, again intends to disrespect Brazil’s Judiciary.” He added that X has a “strategy” to circumvent the ban.
Pinheiro Neto Advogados, the Brazilian law firm representing X in the nation's Supreme Court, declined to provide any comment on Thursday. Previously, courts have restricted accounts involved in investigations related to alleged disinformation and hate speech, actions that Musk has criticized as censorship. Additionally, the courts have mandated that X appoint a local representative, as required by Brazilian regulations.
Brazil’s national telecommunications agency, Anatel, stated that it is actively working to block X’s access in the country via Cloudflare, the content delivery network the platform used to bypass previous restrictions.