Brazil's top court on Friday ordered an immediate nationwide shutdown of X Platform, following a months-long legal battle with Elon Musk's social media company over content moderation, according to Bloomberg.
The court added that anyone using a VPN to access Platform X will face a daily fine of R$50,000 ($8,900), but it is unclear how the decree will be enforced.
Earlier this month, X suspended its operations in Brazil in protest of a court order to remove accounts it said were spreading misinformation. At the time, the company said Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Morais had “threatened that our legal representatives in Brazil would be arrested if we did not comply with the censorship order.” Morais warned X earlier this week that Brazil would ban the service if the company did not appoint a legal representative in Brazil.
“We expect Judge Alexandre de Morais to soon order X to close down in Brazil, as we will not comply with his illegal order to censor his political opponents,” X’s global operations team said in a tweet Friday morning.
The platform said it would make public Brazil's highest court's demands in the coming days and that it would not comply with the court's order.
