Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly known as Twitter) appears to be retreating from a clash with Brazil’s Supreme Court.
According to The New York Times, a recent court filing revealed that X has complied with the court’s demands by blocking specified accounts, paying fines, and appointing a new official representative in the country.
In response to this filing, the Supreme Court issued a statement claiming that X had not submitted the required documentation, giving the company five days to do so.
The conflict originated from an investigation by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes regarding misinformation during elections. Moraes had instructed X to block certain accounts, and although X initially agreed to comply, it later ceased its operations in Brazil.
Following this, Moraes banned the service and warned users of possible fines for attempting to bypass the ban using a VPN. X resumed operations in Brazil recently, with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince mentioning that the timing of their shift to Cloudflare infrastructure was coincidental.
During the ban, Brazilian users turned to alternative social media platforms, causing significant growth for Bluesky and Tumblr.
As of now, X has not responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment, and both Elon Musk and X’s Global Government Affairs account have not commented on the issue. However, X stated that they are committed to collaborating with the Brazilian government to quickly resume services for the citizens of Brazil.
