brazil "bans" x social platform, violators will be fined $8,900 per day
2024-09-04
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musk's social media platform x was "banned" by the brazilian supreme court.
on september 3, according to a report by the global times, brazilian supreme court justice alexandre de moraes ordered on august 30, local time, to immediately suspend the business of social media platform x in brazil. on september 2, local time, a panel of the brazilian supreme court held an online vote, and the judges participating in the vote unanimously agreed to maintain de moraes' decision. this means that the ban on x will continue to take effect.
foreign media reported that the group that voted in the online meeting was composed of 5 of the 11 judges of the brazilian supreme court, including de morais. on august 30, de morais issued an order to suspend the business of x platform in brazil because the platform failed to appoint a local legal representative as required by law.
musk responded on september 3rd local time, saying that de morais had humiliated the judge's robe. in recent days, he has retweeted brazil-related articles several times and angrily criticized de morais.
the brazilian supreme court published a ruling document on its official website, requiring the brazilian national telecommunications agency to suspend the operation of the social media platform in brazil within 24 hours and notify all telecom operators to enforce the relevant ban.
according to reports, de morais also stipulated that individuals or companies that access the x platform through a virtual private network (vpn) will be fined 50,000 reais (8,900 u.s. dollars) per day. however, some legal experts have questioned the basis and implementation of this decision, including the brazilian bar association, which announced that it would ask the supreme court to review the relevant regulations.
most of the judges who voted agreed to impose fines on those who use vpn to access platform x, with only one judge dissenting, believing that the prerequisite for the fine should be that it can be proven that the user used platform x to conduct criminal activities.
musk angrily accused de morais of "trying to destroy democracy in brazil." the billionaire wrote on x: "freedom of speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and an unelected pseudo judge in brazil is undermining democracy for political purposes."
the dispute between de morais and musk began in april.
at that time, demorais ordered the closure of dozens of accounts on x that were suspected of spreading false information. however, the x platform stated that it would not implement demorais' decision to block the accounts.
on august 17, x platform said that due to de morais' "threat" to arrest x platform's legal representative in brazil, the platform decided to close its office in brazil.
on the evening of august 28, the brazilian supreme court required x platform to appoint a new legal representative in brazil within 24 hours, otherwise the platform's services in brazil would be suspended. x platform stated on the evening of the 29th local time that they would not comply with this order.
according to xinhua news agency, brazilian president lula said in an interview with the media on august 30 that musk should respect the ruling of the brazilian supreme court and should not offend the brazilian authorities. "every citizen from anywhere in the world who invests in brazil is subject to brazilian law."
brazil is one of the largest markets for the x platform. as access to x is blocked, many brazilians have started using the bluesky platform as an alternative. bluesky announced last saturday that it had registered 500,000 new users in the south american country in the first two days alone. public information shows that bluesky was funded and founded by jack dorsey, co-founder of twitter (the predecessor of x), and was founded in 2019 and opened to the public in early february 2024.
bluesky is naturally pleased with this. its ceo jay graber posted in portuguese and english to express her excitement about the influx of new users. "well done brazil, you made the right choice."
the paper reporter wu yuli
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