Brazil’s highest court told Elon Musk he has to choose someone to legally represent his company X in Brazil within one day, or they might stop X from working there. This order came from a judge named Alexandre de Moraes, who said if Musk doesn’t do this, X could get shut down in Brazil.
There’s been a big argument going on for months between Elon Musk and a judge named Alexandre de Moraes in Brazil. This judge has been trying to stop false information from spreading online.
Because of this, Judge de Moraes has told more than 100 accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) to stop posting, including some accounts of people who supported Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil.
Bolsonaro claimed without proof that Brazil’s voting machines could be cheated, which he said after he lost the election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2022.
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In April, De Moraes accused Musk of waging a “disinformation campaign” and disrespecting Brazil’s sovereignty after the Tesla CEO decided to stop complying with the court orders to block certain X accounts.
Elon Musk, who believes strongly in free speech, has criticized Alexandre de Moraes, a judge in Brazil, for limiting what people can say online and for not following Brazil’s laws.
Musk’s company, X, decided to stop its work in Brazil because de Moraes was demanding they remove certain posts and even threatened to arrest someone from X if they didn’t follow his orders.
The Brazilian Supreme Court didn’t respond to what X said about these threats.
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People who support former President Bolsonaro, who was stopped from running for office by de Moraes and other judges because of his claims about voting machines, think de Moraes is abusing his power to target his political enemies.
On the other hand, those who support de Moraes say he’s just trying to stop false information and threats to democracy from spreading. Musk had visited Brazil to talk about expanding his internet service, Starlink, but this conflict with de Moraes has caused tension.
