Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has decided to shut down its operations in Brazil as it accused Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of issuing censorship orders.
The company stated that Moraes threatened to detain one of the company’s representatives in Brazil if the platform did not abide by the orders to take down certain content. Although the local offices of X are no longer in operation, the service is still available to users in Brazil.
X, formerly known as Twitter, announced on Saturday that it is shutting down its business in Brazil with immediate effect. The decision was a reaction to measures imposed by Alexandre de Moraes, a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Elon Musk stated that Moraes gave secret orders to take down content on the platform and threatened the lawyer of the company with arrest if they do not adhere to the orders.
In a post on X, Musk explained,
“The decision to close the 𝕏 office in Brazil was difficult, but if we had agreed to [Justice Alexandre Moraes’s] illegal secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”
Although X has ceased its business operations in Brazil, the services of the platform are still accessible to the people of Brazil. The company explained that this decision is taken to shield its employees from legal temptations in Brazil, not to shut down the service in the country.
Elon Musk’s stance has fueled further controversy, especially among supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who have long criticized Moraes. Nikolas Ferreira, a Bolsonaro ally, tweeted:
On September 7th, Brazil will go out on the streets of São Paulo to call for the impeachment of Alexandre de Moraes. Dear @elonmusk, you are welcome. Musk replied: “No question that Moraes needs to go. Having a ‘justice’ who repeatedly and egregiously violates the law is no justice at all.”
Outside the Brazilian legal issues, Musk’s new AI project, GrokAI, has recently been accused of producing disturbing content. The beta version of Grok-2, which is available to premium X subscribers, has been accused of producing misleading, violent and pirated content. Critics have pointed out that GrokAI’s model does not have sufficient measures in place, which some think could have been a deliberate move to appeal to users who are interested in AI-generated content without many boundaries.
In addition to Musk’s legal troubles, the United Auto Workers Union recently filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against both Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. The charges state that there were attempts to intimidate the workers after a two-hour conversation between Trump and Musk on X.
Furthermore, Olympic medalist Imane Khelif has filed a criminal complaint in France accusing Musk, Trump, and J.K. Rowling of participating in a smear campaign against her. However, Musk has not backed down from these issues and continues to support free speech and little moderation on his platforms such as X and GrokAI.
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