Brazil’s Supreme Court banning X shares parallels with platform’s legal battles in India

X had an estimated 40 million monthly active users in Brazil, which is home to the fifth largest digital population. The suspension is likely to impact the platform’s business amid declining advertising revenues.

How did the conflict escalate?

The ban on X comes on the back of a months-long feud between the platform’s owner Elon Musk and Justice de Moreas. In April 2024, the Supreme Court judge ordered dozens of X accounts to be suspended for allegedly spreading disinformation. Most of these accounts reportedly belonged to supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil who is known for his right-wing, nationalist views.

X initially complied with the court-issued blocking orders and took down the accounts in question. The company’s global government affairs team said that “court decisions” had forced the platform to block these accounts as daily fines of up to $20,000 (Rs 16.7 lakh approx.) would have been levied on X if it did not comply with the blocking orders.

However, an hour later, Musk said that he had restored the blocked accounts and called for Justice de Moraes to “resign or be impeached.” In response, the judge ordered an investigation into Musk for alleged obstruction of justice.

Last night, 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.

Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard,… https://t.co/Pm2ovyydhE

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024

On August 17, X said that Justice de Moreas had issued a confidential order in which he allegedly threatened X’s legal representative with arrest if the platform did not comply with the April blocking orders. “As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” X said.

Tensions flared up again on August 29, with Justice de Moreas giving Musk a 24-hour ultimatum to hire a new legal representative in Brazil or face suspension. Once the deadline lapsed, Justice de Moreas imposed a nationwide ban on X, directing Apple and Google to remove the X app from their respective app stores within five days.

Brazilians who continue using X via VPNs will be fined R$50,000 (Rs 7.4 lakh approx.), the ruling added. The Supreme Court also reportedly issued an order to freeze the finances of Starlink, the satellite communication services provider owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

With this decision, Brazil becomes the latest addition to the list of countries that have banned X, including China, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, and North Korea.

How is Brazil vs X similar to India vs Twitter?

By raising questions on important issues such as free speech, censorship, fake news, and digital sovereignty, the feud between X and the Brazilian judiciary appears to have a lot in common with the legal tussle that broke out between Twitter and the Indian government roughly three years ago.

For instance, X pushing back against the blocking orders issued by the Brazilian Supreme Court seems to have triggered the sequence of events leading to its ban. The social media platform, which was known as Twitter at the time, had similarly resisted blocking the accounts of journalists, activists, and politicians at the request of the Indian government during the farmers’ protests back in 2021. These orders were issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, making them confidential in nature. Brazil’s blocking orders are also similarly kept secret, as per reports.

Alleged threats of arrest against X’s legal representative in the South American country mirrors a previous instance where Uttar Pradesh Police had summoned Manish Maheshwari, the then-managing director of Twitter India, over accusations that the platform showed a disputed map of India that did not reflect the country’s declared borders. The Delhi Police had also knocked on Twitter India’s office in the capital after posts by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party members had been flagged as “manipulated media”.

On the verge of losing its safe harbour protections, Twitter had been engaged in a protracted legal battle with the Indian government for not appointing an India-based liaison as required by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Similarly, the order issued by Justice de Moreas required X to name a legal representative in Brazil, which the platform failed to do in time.

Back then, the regulatory pressures and controversy surrounding Twitter in India had led to the rise of a homegrown alternative called Koo, which was recently shut down due to failed acquisition talks and a cash crunch. It remains to be seen if Brazil will witness a similar trend.