Elon Musk’s satellite-based Internet service provider Starlink reversed course and announced on Tuesday that it will comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court justice’s ruling to prohibit the billionaire’s social networking platform, X.
The announcement comes a day after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered telecoms regulator Anatel to demand that service providers block access to the social media platform, which is being punished for failing to ban accounts propagating hate speech.
CNBC stated that X has not appointed a legal representation in the country, which is a federal obligation.
Starlink, which competes with other satellite companies like Hughesnet, Viasat, and Telebras, claims to have about a quarter of a million clients in Brazil.
De Moraes last week ordered the freezing of Starlink’s assets, using the two businesses’ shared economic group as justification for using the funds to potentially settle fines X owes, which already exceeded $3 million (€2.7 million).
According to the Associated Press on August 30, Starlink filed an appeal; however, the company has refrained from commenting further in the days that have passed.
Musk said in a tweet on Monday (September 2): “Unless the Brazilian government returns the illegally seized property of X and SpaceX, we will seek reciprocal seizure of government assets too. Hope Lula [President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva] enjoys flying commercial.”
Although X is losing out on one of its largest markets outside of the US as a result of the ban, Musk appears to be prepared to bear this expense thus far as it enhances his reputation as a champion of free speech around the world.
In Brazil, Starlink has over 225,000 broadband internet contracts, according to Anatel. At just 0.5% of the market, that places it as the sixteenth-ranked provider.
We earlier reported that after the Supreme Court’s order, X is currently prohibited in Brazil.
As a result, a growing number of Brazilians have turned to Bluesky, an alternative social network.
Bluesky’s rapid growth is on the rise, especially given that it switched from an invite-only app to open public access in February.
