Arturo Holmes/Getty Images; SERGIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
- Elon Musk is clashing with a supreme-court judge in Brazil.
- Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X to block accounts related to his misinformation investigation.
- Musk said X would not comply — so de Moraes has opened a separate investigation into Musk.
Another day, another feud for Elon Musk.
A clash between Musk and a judge on Brazil's supreme court came to a head over the weekend, as Justice Alexandre de Moraes opened an investigation into the X owner over whether he obstructed justice.
Musk, for his part, alleged de Moraes was betraying the Brazilian Constitution and said he should resign or be impeached.
De Moraes had previously ordered that certain accounts on X be blocked in Brazil amid an investigation into "digital militias" that he alleged were spreading fake news and threats against Brazil's supreme court during the reign of President Jair Bolsonaro, The Associated Press reported.
On Saturday, X's Global Government Affairs account confirmed it had been forced to block "certain popular accounts in Brazil" — and Musk personally called out de Moraes.
But that same day, Musk said X would not block the accounts in question.
"We are lifting all restrictions," he wrote on X. "This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil. As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit."
On Sunday, Musk added that he would share all of de Moraes' demands publicly and encouraged users to download a virtual private network.
Musk hadn't released the orders as of Monday morning.
De Moraes hit back late on Sunday, opening a separate investigation into Musk over whether he was involved in obstruction of justice, criminal organization, or incitement to crime.
"The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime, the public threat of disobedience of court orders and future lack of cooperation from the platform are facts that disrespect the sovereignty of Brazil," de Moraes wrote in his latest decision, according to the AP.
The decision also said that each reactivated account would incur a fine of roughly $20,000 a day and that responsible parties would be held accountable for disobeying the court.
X returned an auto-reply in response to a request for comment from Business Insider. De Moraes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Musk is drawing a line in the sand with Brazil's request, the company has pushed back but ultimately given in to other country's leaders in the past.
In February, the X Global Government Affairs team posted that India's government had ordered it to censor some accounts.
"In compliance with the orders, we will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone," the team said. "However, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts."
The company also agreed to block accounts in Turkey after the government's order to shut down content before elections last year.