Social media site X announced on Saturday that it will cease operations in Brazil, citing threats from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to detain the company's Brazilian attorney if they disobeyed orders.
Although the corporation stated that services will still be offered to Brazilians, X is "effective immediately" terminating all remaining employees in the nation. The business did not elaborate on how it may maintain service to Brazilians during an operational pause, reported Reuters.
Earlier this year, the company clashed with de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation on X. The company said his most recent orders amounted to censorship, and shared a copy of the document on X.
"To protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately," X said.
The social media giant published pictures of a document allegedly signed by Moraes that says a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest decree would be imposed against X representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if the platform did not fully comply with Moraes's orders.
In a separate social media post on Saturday, Musk called Moraes "an utter disgrace to justice".
"The decision to close the X office in Brazil was difficult," said Musk, adding that if the company had agreed to the judge's orders, "there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed."
The decision to close the 𝕏 office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2024
Musk, who visited Brazil in 2022 and met with Bolsonaro, has also said Moraes "should resign or be impeached."
Nikolas Ferreira, a member of Brazil's chamber of deputies and prominent right-wing politician on social media, said that Brazil will "take to the streets" to demand Moraes's impeachment.
