Brazilian Court Lifts Ban on X after Nearly 6 Weeks

• X has finally agreed to comply with Brazilian court orders. Hence, the 6-week ban on it has been lifted, allowing it to resume operations.
• X had to appoint a new legal representative, pay its outstanding fines, and block the accounts that the court had previously requested.

X will soon resume operations in Brazil as the court decides to lift the ban it imposed on the social media platform nearly 6 weeks ago (on August 30).

X was banned after a long-standing battle between Elon Musk and Alexandre de Moraes after Musk and his company were accused of failing to comply with Brazilian Laws.

A Brief History of the Ban

The immediate reason for the ban was Musk's failure to appoint a local legal representative for the company. It's mandatory for every tech company to have a local legal representative, X is no different. However, when the court gave it a deadline to appoint one, X refused to comply. As a result, X was banned.

However, there's a lot of history behind this ban.

• It started with the Brazilian authorities blaming X for the spread of misinformation and hate speech during the far-right riots (in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings).
• So the court asked X to ban around 100 accounts that were held responsible for spewing hate online.
• However, Musk being a staunch believer in free speech, refused. He has never allowed any government interference on his platforms and he didn't plan on changing his ways.
• What made matters worse is that along with refusing to comply with the orders, Musk also badmouthed Moraes online, calling him a dictator" and Voldemort". This obviously didn't go down well and further fuelled the battle.

Also, just two days before the ban was announced, X shut down its facilities in the country and removed all remaining staff over concerns over their safety because Moraes had allegedly threatened its former legal representative, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceicao, with arrest if X didn't block those accounts.

Fines Imposed on X

The Brazilian court was strict when it came to punishing X for non-compliance.

• X was banned and the court froze its assets. Starlink, Musk's satellite company, was the only network service provider that did not comply with the ban so the court froze its assets as well.
• Then a fine of $3.3 million was imposed on the companies. Out of this, $1.3 million was imposed on X and $1.9 million on Starlink.
• Another fine of around $1.9 million was imposed on X for continuing its operation in Brazil for 2 days after the ban.
• Since the court already had control over their bank accounts, it took out the fine itself and unfroze the assets.

What Happens Now?

Musk vehemently protested against all these yet for some reason, he seems to have backed down now. Perhaps he realized that the Brazilian government isn't to be messed with because it can't afford to lose its Brazilian user base which consists of at least 21 million citizens.

So he has finally blocked all the accounts named by the court, paid off all his outstanding fines, and even appointed a new legal representative. Everything is back to normal and in light of these changes, the court has decided to lift the ban and allow X to operate in Brazil once again.

Musk's defeat in this long Brazil vs Musk battle was warmly welcomed by pro-democracy activists. They believe that this case was not only a victory against X but also a victory for the country's sovereignty and democracy.

The suspension of X was an important measure to ensure that all companies, including big tech, comply with and respect Brazilian laws.' - Sleeping Giants, social media activism organization

The post Brazilian Court Lifts Ban on X after Nearly 6 Weeks appeared first on The Tech Report.