A Supreme Court justice suspended social media platform X on August 30 after it failed to comply with judicial orders.
Social media platform X was suspended in Brazil on August 30. The suspension, ordered by Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes, outraged those who see the measure as an assault on free speech but was applauded by those who decry the social network’s role in proliferating anti-democratic messages and hate speech in Brazil.
Subsidiary Impacts
- Demands to impeach Moraes will be unsuccessful.
- Calls to update the 2014 Internet Civil Framework will increase.
- Despite the suspension, Brazil will remain a key market for social media companies.
- Other democracies will face the challenge of combating political interference from social media platforms without infringing on free speech.
Analysis
Clashes between X owner Elon Musk and Moraes stem from the justice’s decisions during his years in charge of inquiries into the dissemination of fake news and attacks on the country’s democracy. In April, Musk asked on X why Moraes imposed “so much censorship in Brazil”, and the company said it had been “forced” by court decisions to block some popular Brazilian accounts.
Subsequently, Moraes included Musk in the STF probe into the existence of anti-democratic “digital militias”, arguing that X had been subject to “wilful criminal instrumentalisation”.
Such “militias” were allegedly associated with the far right, notably former President Jair Bolosnaro (2019-2023) and his supporters.
Escalation
The clash intensified last month. On August 13, X’s official profile published what it presented as a confidential order issued by Moraes the previous week determining the blocking of seven ‘Bolsonarista’ accounts, including those of Senator Marcos do Val — into whom Moraes opened an investigation last year after the senator said Bolsonaro had sought his support to stage a coup, only to contradict himself hours later.
Moraes also ordered X to deliver information about users who accessed an account belonging to the teenage daughter of a blogger the justice system has considered a fugitive since 2022.
Four days later, X announced it was closing its offices in Brazil, alleging the need to “protect the safety” of its staff. The company said Moraes had threatened to arrest its legal representative in Brazil if it failed to accept his “censorship orders”.
X suspension
On August 28, Moraes gave X 24 hours to appoint a new legal representative or have its activities suspended. The presence of a legal representative is required by the Brazilian Civil Code.
There are precedents for the suspension of apps and digital platforms for this reason. In 2022, for example, the Telegram messaging app was blocked for two days, also because the lack of a Brazilian legal representative meant it was unable to receive judicial orders. The company responded by appointing a representative, even if it still lacks an office in Brazil.
X, however, said shortly after the 24-hour deadline that it would not accept Moraes’s ultimatum and would await its suspension instead.
On August 30, Moraes determined X’s “immediate and full” suspension in Brazil until it complies with all decisions issued by Brazilian courts. The following day, X created the @AlexandreFiles account “to reveal the unlawful directives issued to X” by Moraes.
The decision affects some 40 million Brazilians who use X — just over one-quarter of the total users of social networks and messaging apps, according to figures published by business newspaper Valor Economico.
Moraes’s order was subsequently confirmed by all five members of the STF’s first chamber, of which he is a member. Conservative groups criticised him for not submitting the case to the full Court, which includes eleven justices, including two nominated by Bolsonaro.
Free speech controversy
Musk and conservative politicians have accused Moraes of attacking “free speech”. Notably, the conservative New Party has asked STF Justice Nunes Marques (himself nominated by Bolsonaro) to overturn Moraes’s decision. Marques has said that maintaining the suspension will require a vote by the full Court, although it appears likely that a majority will still uphold it. (Were Marques to overturn it on a provisional basis, the issue would still have to go to the full Court for a final vote.)
On the other side of the debate, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other left-of-centre politicians have supported Moraes. University of Sao Paulo Constitutional Law Professor Conrado Hubner Mendes argued in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that “it is not possible to turn a blind eye to political delinquency and gangsterism. Nor to confuse them with freedom.”
VPN controversy
Moraes also imposed a daily fine of BRL50,000 (some USD9,000) on anyone found to have used a virtual private network (VPN) to access X. The Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) has asked Marques to overturn this element of Moraes’s decision.
However, it is unclear how identifying those defying the ban would be technically possible, since VPNs encrypt a device’s internet connection and spoof its Internet Protocol (IP) address, allowing people to access the web from Brazil as if they were doing so from another country.
Indeed, the media reported a surge in VPN usage following the X shutdown order, with Proton VPN, for example, saying the number of signups it recorded in Brazil in the weekend following the order was 1,840% above normal levels.
Another beneficiary is Bluesky, a microblogging platform similar to X, but built on open-source code and decentralised, which has also seen a significant increase in user numbers, although if the X ban is reversed rapidly many users will likely return.
While Brazilian social media users are looking for ways either to maintain their X access or find an alternative, an AtlasIntel poll conducted on September 3-4 revealed that internet users in the country are split on the Musk-Moraes controversy. However, although a slight majority disagree with the suspension, more people take Moraes’s side in the dispute than Musk’s.
On September 7 (Independence Day), Bolsonaro addressed a rally in Sao Paulo to protest the X ban. However, the turnout estimated at around 50,000 was far below that of previous demonstrations called by Bolsonaro.
Starlink
The clash between Moraes and Musk also affects Starlink, a wholly owned subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX group that uses low Earth orbit satellites to deliver high-speed internet connection to remote areas.
Moraes ordered the freezing of Starlink’s bank accounts in Brazil so that the resources could be used to pay the daily BRL1.4mn fine imposed on X for failing to comply with the order to remove Do Val’s account from the platform.
The justice argues this was justified as both companies are owned by Musk, and obtaining the resources from Starlink, even if it is a separate legal entity, was necessary as X no longer has legal representation in Brazil.
Regardless of the outcome of this particular case, Starlink will likely remain an important provider in a country where it controls 42% of the internet satellite market and plays a key role in the Amazonia region.
Authored by:
Dr Jill Hedges
Deputy Director & Senior Analyst, Latin America
What next?
The controversy highlights how the lack of a functional framework to regulate social media use causes the principles of democracy and freedom of expression to clash instead of reinforcing each other. Although in Brazil this will be seen as part of an entrenched debate over judicial overreach, at its root it is a challenge that no country has managed to address in a way widely accepted as legitimate and satisfactory.
