The top judge of Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, ruled on Friday that X must pay one final fine before the Elon Musk-owned social network is permitted to reopen in that nation.
Elon Musk’s American company filed a request to withdraw the platform restriction earlier this week, telling the court that it has cooperated with requirements to reduce misinformation.
For two more days of disobedience of the court’s orders, X is now required to pay a fresh punishment of 10 million reals, or around $2 million, as reported by Brazil’s G1 Globo. A fine of 300,000 reals must also be paid by Rachel de Oliveira, X’s Brazilian attorney.
The judge indicated that the resources that are currently blocked from Brazilian Starlink and X accounts may be used by the court. But to get these funds, Musk’s satellite company has to give up its ongoing battle against the asset freeze.
Musk had threatened to disobey the court’s directives to remove specific Brazilian accounts. He denounced the court’s decisions as “censorship,” attacked de Moraes harshly on social media, branding the judge a “criminal,” and urged the United States to stop providing help to Brazil.
The tech billionaire closed the X offices in Brazil in the middle of August.
Due to this, his company was unable to maintain a legal presence in the nation, which is a statutory necessity for any tech platforms operating in that nation.
The platform has been suspended in Brazil, one of its largest and most valuable countries, since late August, when Moraes ruled that it had failed to comply with requirements to combat hate speech and designate a local legal representative.
We earlier reported that X’s chief of worldwide relations just resigned from the social media powerhouse.
Nick Pickles, who spent a decade with the company formerly known as Twitter, revealed in a release that he decided to leave a few months ago and has since been working with Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, to smooth the transition.
