A Brazilian Supreme Court panel on Monday, September 2, unanimously upheld the decision of one of its justices to block billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X nationwide, according to the court's website. The broader support among justices undermines the effort by Musk and his supporters to cast Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an authoritarian renegade who is intent on censoring political speech in Brazil.
The panel that voted in a virtual session was comprised of five of the full bench's 11 justices, including de Moraes, who last Friday ordered the platform blocked for refusing to name a local legal representative, as required by law. It will stay suspended until it complies with his orders and pays outstanding fines that as of last week exceeded $3 million, according to his decision.
De Moraes also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X. Some legal experts questioned the grounds for that decision and how it would be enforced, including Brazil's bar association, which said it would request the Supreme Court review that provision. But the majority of the panel upheld the VPN fine – with one justice opposing unless users are shown to be using X to commit crimes.
Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, with tens of millions of users. Its block marked a dramatic escalation in a monthslong feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. The suspension has also proceeded to set up a showdown between de Moraes and Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink, which is refusing to enforce the justice's decision.
"He violated the constitution of Brazil repeatedly and egregiously, after swearing an oath to protect it," Musk wrote in the hours before the vote, adding a flurry of insults and accusations in the wake of the panel's vote. On Sunday, Musk announced the creation of an X account to publish the justice's sealed decisions that he said would show they violated Brazilian law.
But legal experts have said such claims don't hold water, noting in particular that de Moraes' peers have repeatedly endorsed his rulings – as they did on Monday. Although his actions are viewed by experts as legal, they have sparked some debate over whether one man has been afforded too much power, or if his rulings should have more transparency.
The arguments from Musk, a self-proclaimed "free-speech absolutist," have found fertile ground with Brazil's political right, who view de Moraes' actions as political persecution against Bolsonaro's supporters. On Brazilian orders, X previously has shut down accounts including of lawmakers affiliated with Bolsonaro's right-wing party and far-right activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. X's lawyers in April sent a document to the Supreme Court, saying that since 2019 it had suspended or blocked 226 users.
Bolsonaro and his allies have cheered on Musk for defying de Moraes. Supporters rallied in April along Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach with a giant sign reading "Brazil Thanks Elon Musk." Earlier that month, de Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk over the dissemination of defamatory fake news and another probe over possible obstruction, incitement and criminal organization. Bolsonaro is also the target of a de Moraes probe over whether the former president had a role in inciting an attempted coup to overturn the results of the 2022 election that he lost.