SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Media platform X said on Saturday it would shut down its operations in Brazil “with immediate effect” due to what it called “censorship orders” issued by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.
X alleges that Moraes secretly threatened one of its legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to remove certain content from its platform. Brazil’s Supreme Court, where Moraes sits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s platform said Saturday that its X service remains available to the Brazilian people.
Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts, while investigating so-called “digital militias” accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Moraes had earlier this year opened an investigation into the billionaire after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on X that a judge had ordered blocked. Musk called Moraes’s decisions on X “unconstitutional.”
After Musk’s challenges, X representatives backed down and told Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with the legal rulings.
Lawyers representing X in Brazil in April told the Supreme Court that “operational errors” allowed users who had been ordered blocked to remain active on the social media platform, after Moraes asked X to explain why it had not fully complied with his orders.