X (formerly Twitter) could soon resume its service in Brazil, if it is willing to pay an additional fine.
Reuters and other publications have reported on an order from the country’s Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes stating that the social network owned by Elon Musk could “immediately return to its activities in national territory” if it pays a fine of 10 million reais (around 1.9 million dollars).
This is in addition to the 18.3 million reais ($3.4 million) that X had already received a fine. Brazil froze the accounts of X and Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, in order to pay the fine, but to move forward, Moraes said Starlink must withdraw its appeal against the payments.
For much of this year, X has been locked in a legal battle over Moraes’ attempt to block certain accounts he accused of posting misinformation about the election. (musk said that Moraes “should resign or be impeached”). The company finally close operations in Brazil and it was banned in the country at the end of August.
The ban caused competing services, including blue skyto increase its popularity.
More recently, however, X seemed to reverse courseagreeing to block the designated accounts, pay the required fines and appoint a legal representative in Brazil. Moraes is telling the company to pay this additional fine after X appeared to circumvent the ban earlier this month and resume service in the country. apparently a “coincidence” caused by the move from X to Cloudflare infrastructure.
X’s Global Government Affairs account appeared to acknowledge its acquiescence in a post on Thursdaywriting: “We recognize and respect the sovereignty of the countries in which we operate” and stating that providing access to Brazilian users “is essential for a thriving democracy.”
