By OANN - Abril Elfi - Saturday, August 17, 2024

Media platform X announced on Saturday that it would “effectively immediately” close operations in Brazil following Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes’ “censorship orders.”

Elon Musk’s company X has claimed that Moraes threatened to arrest one of the company’s legal representatives in the South American nation if it disobeyed court orders to remove certain content from its platform.

X posted pictures of a document allegedly signed by Moraes that says a daily fine of $3,653 and an arrest decree would be imposed against X representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if the platform did not fully comply with Moraes’ orders.

“To protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” X said.

Earlier this year, after Musk declared he would reactivate X accounts that the judge had ordered be blocked, Moraes launched an investigation into the billionaire. Moraes’ choices regarding X have been referred to by Musk as “unconstitutional.”

Following Musk’s challenges, X representatives changed their minds and informed the Supreme Court of Brazil that the massive social media company would abide by the court’s decisions.

Attorneys for X in Brazil testified before the Supreme Court in April that “operational faults” had permitted users to continue using the social media site after they were ordered to be blocked. 

This was in response to Moraes’ request for an explanation of X’s alleged failure to fully comply with his rulings.

In posts on X on Saturday, Musk called Moraes an “utter disgrace to justice” and said the company could not have agreed to the judge’s “secret censorship and private information handover demands.”