Battle Against Elon Musk Leads Brazil to Ban X (Twitter) From Its Territory

Can Elon Musk do without a market of 215 million inhabitants? He will be forced to do so if he does not respond to Brazil’s demands: the country, through its Federal Supreme Court and Judge Alexandre de Moraes, has just announced that it is banning the social network X (Twitter) from its territory. What’s more, any Brazilian trying to use a VPN to connect to X could be fined 50,000 reals, or just over €8,000. Enough to discourage people.

The origin of the confusion between X and Brazil

But why this showdown and such radical decisions? If we look closely at recent events, we can say that the history is surprisingly recent and shows that the country has moved quickly: on August 28, 2024, Brazil asked X to appoint a legal representative in the country. The company refused, leading to the conviction and banishment on August 30.

However, we have to take a step back to understand the whole story, because it actually goes back to the beginning of the year. In April 2024, Brazil launched an investigation into X, accused by the government of having unblocked accounts that had been blocked by local court decisions. The majority of these accounts, reported the New York Timeswas linked to Jair Bolsonaro, the former far-right president defeated in 2022. In his crusade against the ” wokeism “, Elon Musk has multiplied such actions where he could, going so far as to consider having revealed a massive conspiracy by the former management of Twitter, which he described as being under the orders of the progressive left.

From then on, the situation escalated, with Brazil, believing that an American company should respect its laws, raising its voice. Faced with Elon Musk’s stubborn refusal to accede to the Brazilian government’s demands, the country requested the appointment of a new legal representative. And this is where we come back to square one: this request was refused by Elon Musk and the country decided to block the social network entirely.

Elon Musk’s reaction is not surprising

For Elon Musk, who cites an account on the platform named Ending Wokeism” Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political gain ” Before adding on his own account X, in a torrent of publications, that Brazil has just destroyed ” the only source of information that tells the truth ” or to endorse a post that claims that if ” Democrats are elected “In the United States, censorship of speech will be a given.

A showdown that is based, fundamentally, on similar foundations to other cases around the world involving major platforms: how to force them to respect local laws, even though their operations and administration are American?