Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has ‘immediately’ shut down its local operation in Brazil.
According to The Washington Post, the company claimed on Saturday, August 17 that it is exiting from Brazil after the top judge of the country threatened them to arrest their lawyer for not following the orders to take down certain accounts.
X’s global government affairs team said in a post, “Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.”
It further added, “We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes. His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make, democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes."
However, the website of the social media platform will remain available for the people. As of 2023, there are nearly 20 million X users in Brazil.
X team also alleged, “Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders, and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.”
For the unversed, it is not the first time when Moraes and Musk are standing against each other, as earlier in April judge Moraes accused Musk of misusing his social media platform after he ordered Musk to keep certain accounts banned, but Musk reactivated them.
