September 3 :
The five-judge Brazilian Supreme Court has decided to maintain the ban that one of its justices issued last week on Elon Musk's social media platform X.According to Al Jazeera, The ban was enforced on Saturday by Justice Alexandre de Moraes following Musk's company's failure to designate a representation in the South American nation by the court-mandated deadline.
The five-judge panel was requested on Monday to review the expulsion of X from Brazil that occurred on Friday.
"It is not possible for a company to operate in the territory of a country and intend to impose its vision on which rules should be valid or applied," Justice Flavio Dino stated, joining Justice Cristiano Zanin in backing with Moraes.
It would seem that the party that willfully disregards court rulings thinks it is immune to the rule of law. "And thus it can become an outlaw," he remarked.
The ruling was unanimous, as reported by Al Jazeera, because Justices Luiz Fux and Carmen Lucia also supported Moraes.
Nonetheless, X may get his ban lifted if he follows the precedent set by the judges.
"Allow the massive spread of disinformation, hate speech and attacks on the democratic rule of law, violating the free choice of the electorate, by keeping voters away from real and accurate information," Moraes had characterized Musk in his original Friday order, which had referred to Musk as a "outlaw."
All of the country's telecom carriers were instructed by the Supreme Court to shut down X. X has until last week to pay off fines totaling more than USD 3 million, as per Moraes's order, or the suspension would be extended.
The action was criticized by Musk, who acquired X (formerly known as Twitter) in 2022, as an act of censorship.
The platform was hailed as Brazil's premier "source of Truth" by him on Friday. Moraes was also referred to be a "dictator" by him.
Elon Musk has reportedly downsized the platform's content moderation teams since purchasing X and has been pushing far-right content and unproven claims on his personal feed, leading to a recent spat with the UK government over anti-migrant and anti-Muslim riots in the country, according to Al Jazeera.
In addition to endorsing Trump for president, he conducted a respectful interview with the former president and Republican contender for November's election in August.
However, Brazil's present crackdown on X appears to be serious. Musk has already had trouble capturing ad money, and now this prohibition threatens one of his biggest marketplaces. With a total population of around 215 million, Brazil is home to an estimated 40 million X users.
There is a steep daily penalty of up to 50,000 reais (USD 9,000) for businesses and people found using the network using an encrypted connection. Speaking to CNN Brasil on Monday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed his satisfaction with the judgment of the Supreme Court panel, calling it a message.
