Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by Elon Musk, has confirmed that it will comply with a court order to block access to the social media platform X in Brazil.
The decision comes after Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes issued an order to suspend X after Musk refused to name a legal representative for the company in Brazil.
The issues started when Moraes intensified his efforts to remove far-right content from X after the January 2023 riots in Brasília, led by supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Musk resisted these demands, accusing the judge of restricting free speech.
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On September 3, Starlink took to X to criticize the ban, labeling it “illegal” and calling out Judge Moraes for issuing it. The court order also included freezing Starlink’s financial assets within Brazil.
Starlink revealed that it has initiated legal proceedings to challenge both the suspension of X and the freezing of its assets, suggesting that these actions violate the country’s laws. The company said:
Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing of our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil. We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that <Moraes’> recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution.
The suspension has drawn criticism from X users and supporters of free speech, who argue that the court is overstepping its authority. Some users have reported continued access to X through virtual private networks (VPNs); however, Moraes’ ruling includes penalties of up to $8,900 for those attempting to bypass the ban.
According to the judge, X will remain suspended until the platform pays fines exceeding $3 million.
Thus, while Starlink and other stakeholders are pressing forward with legal challenges, the ban remains in effect.
The ban has resulted in a surge of Brazilian users on alternative platforms. Bluesky, a US-based decentralized social media platform, reported on September 1 that its user base had grown by 1 million in just three days.
Gode is a Web3 Market Analyst who researches the most important industry events and interprets how they affect the wider Web3 space. Her formal education in media culture & digital rhetoric allows her to employ a methodical approach to evaluating critical Web3 news data, including large-scale events and the wider social sentiment within the ecosystem.
Gode is a mutilingual professional, having studied in multiple universities all across Europe. This allows her to have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to analyze Web3 social sentiments spanning different cultures and languages and, in turn, develop a much deeper understanding of how the Web3 space is growing within different communities. With the rest of her team, Gode works to identify crucial crypto news patterns and provide unbiased and data-driven information.
Gode’s passions include working and communicating with people, and when she’s not researching Web3 news, she spends her time traveling and watching true crime documentaries.
