Elon Musk has stepped up his online attacks on a Supreme Court justice and is threatening to suspend social media platform X in Brazil, calling him an “evil dictator” amid an ongoing feud between the two men.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes had threatened to suspend X if Musk did not appoint a new legal representative for the company in Brazil and pay any outstanding fines within 24 hours.
“Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator posing as a judge,” the richest person in the world wrote on X.
Musk, who previously called Moraes “Darth Vader,” retweeted a statement from X’s Global Government Affairs team that would release the “judge’s unlawful demands and all related court documents” in the coming days.
Brazil is a major market for social media platforms. About 40 million Brazilians, or about 18% of the population, visit X at least once a month, according to the Associated Press.
The trash talk marks the latest salvo in Musk’s feud with the Moraes, which has revolved around arguments over free speech and alleged disinformation. X announced earlier this month that it was closing its operations and laying off its staff in Brazil due to what it called “censorship orders” from a judge.
De Moraes had ordered the social media company to block several X accounts because he said they were spreading disinformation.
The final statement, signed by De Moraes, was also shared on the Supreme Court’s official X account, tagging both Musk and X’s Global Government Affairs account.
The Supreme Court statement was posted around 8:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday night. Musk has until Thursday night local time to respond.
‘Censorship orders’
On August 17, X released a lengthy statement saying it had been forced to close operations in Brazil and lay off staff due to De Moraes’ “censorship orders.”
“Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed of these orders, and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,” X’s statement said.
“As a result, we have decided to close our operations in Brazil, effective immediately, to protect the safety of our staff. The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened to have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes.”
Later that day, Musk reiterated X’s official statement, saying his company had “no choice” but to close its Brazilian operations.
“Due to the demands of ‘judge’ Alexandre (de Moraes) in Brazil requiring us to (secretly) violate Brazilian, Argentinian, US and international laws, X has no choice but to close our local branches in Brazil,” he said in a message from X.
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