Elon Musk’s X is resuming operations in Brazil following a months-long conflict between the firm and the country’s federal supreme court minister, Alexandre de Moraes.
“I authorise the immediate return of X’s activities,” Judge Alexandre de Moraes stated in his verdict after the corporation paid millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a succession of court orders.
According to a statement, the site has paid fines of 28 million reais ($5.1 million; £3.8 million) and agreed to appoint a local agent by Brazilian legislation.
Moraes had barred access to the site, owned by Elon Musk, since it refused to ban many profiles judged by the government to be disseminating misinformation regarding the 2022 Brazilian presidential election.
“X is proud to return to Brazil,” the company wrote in a post on X from its global government affairs account. “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.”
After Moraes blocked X, Musk slammed the judge, calling him an “evil dictator” and referring to him as “Voldemort” after the villain from the Harry Potter series.
Moraes, for his part, accused the platform of undermining democracy by allowing disinformation to flourish, a position supported 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.
At one point, the court tried to freeze X’s Brazilian company accounts, as well as those of SpaceX-owned Starlink, the country’s satellite internet service provider.
Many customers went to alternative sites like Bluesky, and the demand for VPNs (Virtual Proxy Networks) in Brazil skyrocketed.
Brazil is one of the platform’s largest markets worldwide, as well as in Latin America, with an estimated 22 million users.
We earlier reported that Russia has officially banned Discord, a popular instant chat platform.
