Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images // SERGIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images
- For months, Elon Musk has publicly feuded with Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes.
- Musk says Brazil is trying to censor X posts. De Moras says the platform is a haven for hate speech.
- On Saturday, Musk announced the immediate closure of X's Brazil office due to legal threats.
X's office in Brazil is set to close "immediately" amid an escalation in Elon Musk's public feud with Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes.
"Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders," the X Global Government Affairs office announced in a post on the platform. "He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions."
The social media platform remains available for residents of Brazil to access, the company's post noted. Included in the post were screenshots of a legal order issued by The National High Court of Brazil, which Reuters reported threatened a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) as well as the issuance of an arrest decree against Rachel Nova Conceicao, a representative for X, if the social media site did not comply to Moraes' orders to take down specific content on its platform.
De Moraes is specifically targeting content posted by "digital militias" that he says have been methodically spreading fake news and hate messages about far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Like the US, Brazil has speech protections enshrined in its constitution, but the Brazilian government has wider discretion to ban certain kinds of speech, like hate speech, than the US government.
"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 office statement continued.
Musk and de Moraes have been in a public battle over the requested removals for months. De Moraes pressured the platform to block accounts accused of spreading fake news and threats against Brazil's supreme court during President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, threatening fines of about $20,000 a day for each blocked account that was reinstated.
X initially agreed to block the accounts per Brazil's legal orders, complying with content moderation requests similar to those made by Turkey, which the platform has previously agreed to honor.
However, Musk later lifted the restrictions on Brazilian accounts, despite de Moraes's threats of fines and further legal action, prompting de Moraes to launch an investigation into Musk himself in April. Musk, at the time, said that as a result of the move, "we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit."
Musk wrote a post on Saturday as news of the office closure broke: "The decision to close the š office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre's (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed,"
Representatives for X and The National High Court of Brazil did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.