Social media platform X has appointed a legal representative in Brazil. This is a first step towards resuming services in the country. However, a judge has ruled that the platform’s suspension will last until further requirements are met.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in a ruling published on Saturday that X had still “not properly” met all the requirements for ending the ban. He gave X five days to submit additional documents.
The prominent judge has long been embroiled in a feud with X’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, as part of his campaign to tackle disinformation in Brazil.
X’s suspension last month came after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading fake news and failed to appoint a new legal representative in the country, as he had been ordered to do.
The conflict between the Brazilian court and the iconic billionaire has turned into a tense battle that is testing the limits of freedom of expression and corporate responsibility in South America’s largest country.
Before the ban, the social media platform had more than 22 million users in Brazil.
Moraes also fined X at least five million reais ($913,000) for violating the suspension on Thursday, when the platform became accessible again thanks to a technical intervention that effectively circumvented the government blockade.
X denied deliberately defying the ban, saying it was an “unintended and temporary” consequence of a change of network providers. It later went offline again.
But Moraes said X had deliberately made “malicious, illegal and persistent” attempts to defy Brazilian justice.
In their ongoing head-to-head confrontation, Musk accuses Moraes of being an “evil dictator,” while the magistrate insists that X must not spread disinformation that could endanger democracy.
The suspension was welcomed by Brazil’s left-wing political wing, behind President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, while the right-wing opposition and former President Jair Bolsonaro criticized the suspension as unconstitutional censorship.
Moraes has also frozen the assets of X and Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink, which has been operating in Brazil since 2022, particularly in remote communities in the Amazon, to ensure that fines the social network has received for ignoring court orders are paid.
Musk has repeatedly attacked Moraes in social media posts, calling him an “evil dictator” and dubbing him “Voldemort,” after the villain from the “Harry Potter” series.
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