X back in Brazil: SC lifts ban after Musk pays $5.2 million fine, complies with orders

X is back in Brazil. The ban on Elon Musk’s microblogging site has been lifted after over a month following the Supreme Court’s order on Tuesday, which gave the communication regulator of the country a deadline of 24 hours to make it accessible again for Brazilian users.

X, which had 22 million users in Brazil, was blocked by Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes on August 30 due to non-compliance of the Supreme Court orders.

Why was X banned in Brazil?

The Musk led microblogging site was banned in Brazil after it failed to deactivate the accounts of dozens of supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and to name a new legal representative in Brazil.

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On Tuesday, Justice De Moraes gave the go ahead to X to resume its operations in Latin America’s largest country.

“The resumption of (X)’s activities on national territory was conditioned, solely, on full compliance with Brazilian laws and absolute observance of the Judiciary’s decisions, out of respect for national sovereignty,” Justice De Moraes said in his ruling after Musk’s microblogging site settled millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders.

“I authorise the immediate return of the activities” of X, Justice De Moraes further said.  

According to a report by AFP, X’s fight with Moraes began during the October 2022 election, in which Bolsonaro failed to win a second term.

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It escalated in January 2023 following attacks by Bolsonaro supporters on federal buildings in Brasilia after Lula’s inauguration.  

On August 31, the tensions mounted when Moraes dramatically blocked X for failing to deactivate the accounts of dozens of supporters of Bolsonaro.  

Following the ban, Musk lashed out at Moraes by calling him an “evil dictator” and dubbing him “Voldemort” after the villain from the “Harry Potter” series.

Moraes accused the social media platform of undermining democracy by allowing disinformation to flourish  – a position backed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who declared that the state would not “be intimidated by individuals, companies or digital platforms that believe themselves to be above the law."

X eventually complied with all of the demands made by Moraes in order to have the suspension lifted.

The AFP report mentioned the judge confirming last week that X had also settled around $5.2 million in fine.

X welcomes Brazil ban lift 

X welcomed the decision, saying it is proud to return to Brazil after being banned for around 40 days.

“Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate,” Global Government Affairs, posted by X on X.

X is proud to return to Brazil. Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.

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O…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) October 8, 2024

Following the ban in August, many Brazilians migrated to other platforms such as Threads or Bluesky, the social media network created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, but neither has come close to attracting the kind of audience enjoyed by X.

With inputs from AFP.