Brazil’s Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it was revoking the ruling. Ban on XIt comes after the social media site owned by billionaire Elon Musk was blocked in Latin America’s biggest market for more than a month amid an uproar over misinformation.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes rules that the social platform “authorizes the immediate return to operations” after X paid a multimillion-dollar fine for violating a court order on combating misinformation. I mentioned it in the.
In late August, Moraes suspended Mr. X after Mr. Musk refused to appoint a legal representative in Brazil.
moraes and musk were fighting Regarding allegations that X engaged in obstruction, criminal organization, and sedition, that is, that X supported a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices. , the trial dragged on for months.
The controversy, which pits freedom of expression against corporate responsibility, attracted attention around the world. An enraged Musk lashed out at Moraes, calling him an “evil dictator” and naming him “Voldemort” after the villain in the Harry Potter series.
Moraes gave Brazil’s telecoms regulator 24 hours to allow millions of Brazilian users to access the platform again.
“X is proud to return to Brazil,” the platform wrote on the Global Government Affairs handle. “Throughout this process, it has been paramount that we give tens of millions of Brazilians access to our essential platform. We will protect freedom of speech within the limits of the law wherever we operate. I will continue to protect it.”
Musk has not yet responded to the decision.
According to market research group eMarketer, about 40 million Brazilians, or about one-fifth of the population, access X at least once a month.
On August 31, President Moraes deactivated the accounts of dozens of supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, dramatically halting X’s failure to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil. , tensions reached a climax.
X ultimately complied with all of Mr. Moraes’ requests to have his suspension lifted. A judge confirmed last week that the company also settled a fine of about $5.2 million.
Many Brazilians, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have moved to other platforms such as Threads and Bluesky, the social media network created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
However, neither attracted the kind of audience that X enjoyed.
The battle between Mr. X and Mr. Moraes began during the October 2022 election, when Mr. Bolsonaro failed to win a second term.
After Lula took office as president in January 2023, the situation further escalated following an attack by Bolsonaro supporters on the federal building in Brasilia.
The destruction by Bolsonaro’s supporters, dubbed “Tropical Trump,” has drawn comparisons to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Midway through the suspension, X briefly returned to Brazil in mid-September after a technical workaround it claimed was “inadvertent.”
But it was taken offline again after Moraes threatened to impose additional fines for violations.
