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Brazil started blocking Elon Musk\u2019s social media platform X early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through its mobile app after the company refused to comply with a judge\u2019s<\/a><\/span> order.<\/p>\n X missed a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to name a legal representative in Brazil, triggering the suspension. It marks an escalation in the monthslong feud<\/a><\/span> between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.<\/p>\n To block X, Brazil\u2019s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users\u2019 access to the social media platform. As of Saturday at midnight local time, major operators began doing so.<\/p>\n De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn\u2019t had a representative in the country since earlier this month.<\/p>\n The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it.<\/p>\n In a later ruling, he backtracked on his initial decision to establish a 5-day deadline for internet service providers themselves \u2014 and not just the telecommunications regulator \u2014 to block access to X, as well as his directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.<\/p>\n The dispute also led to the freezing this week of the bank accounts in Brazil of Musk\u2019s satellite internet provider Starlink.<\/p>\n Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers<\/a><\/span> since Musk purchased the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a sad day for X users around the world, especially those in Brazil, who are being denied access to our platform. I wish it did not have to come to this \u2013 it breaks my heart,\u201d X\u2019s CEO Linda Yaccarino said Friday night, adding that Brazil is failing to uphold its constitution\u2019s pledge to forbid censorship.<\/p>\n X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, \u201csimply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,\u201d the company wrote.<\/p>\n X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.<\/p>\n Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. X\u2019s lawyers in April sent a document to the Supreme Court in April, saying that since 2019 it had suspended or blocked 226 users.<\/p>\n In his decision Friday, de Moraes\u2019 cited Musk\u2019s statements as evidence that X\u2019s conduct \u201cclearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cElon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,\u201d de Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday.<\/div>\n\n