Brazil’s telecom landscape was rattled as the clock struck midnight, marking the enforcement of a court-mandated ban on the social media platform X. As the internet service providers scrambled to comply with the legal verdict, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk unleashed a barrage of criticism, aiming squarely at Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Justice de Moraes’ ruling issued the previous day gave Anatel, the country’s telecoms regulator, a tight 24-hour deadline to cut off access to X, effectively pushing the platform into digital exile within the realm of approximately 203 million Brazilians – a country boasting the greatest population in South America.
The gears of adherence to the court order quickly began to turn post-midnight on Saturday as major service operators kicked off the operation to block X. In an additional twist, Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) (GOOG) were handed a five-day ultimatum to clamp down on X downloads.
“X stands as Brazil’s primary news source, the people’s choice. Yet, the tyrant de Voldemort now brazenly curtails the populace’s voice,” a starkly worded message from Musk, at the helms of both Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPACE), resonated across the X platform.
“No matter the hindrances imposed by him, Brazilian eyes will not be shielded from his transgressions,” Musk affirmed with unwavering determination.
The ban marks the culmination of a protracted legal skirmish between de Moraes and Musk concerning X’s operations in its fourth-largest global market, Brazil. The legal sparring had a genesis in April when the Brazilian Supreme Court justice explicitly directed X to purge several accounts accused of disseminating hate speech and untruths.
Faced with X’s hesitance to acquiesce, de Moraes wielded the sword of warning, vowing to obliterate X within a day unless it designated a legal representative in Brazil.
“Elon Musk’s outright disregard for Brazilian autonomy and, more pointedly, the judiciary, cast him as a veritable supra-national force, immune to the statutes of individual countries,” de Moraes asserted in his judicial edict.
X’s decision to terminate its Brazilian operations with immediate effect, citing an onslaught of “censorship edicts” from de Moraes, was unveiled a fortnight prior, marking a definitive end to the platform’s footprint in Brazil.