Elon Musk, in trouble with Brazilian justice, announces the closure of the offices of the social network X in the country

Billionaire Elon Musk announced on Saturday, August 17, that the Brazilian offices of the social network X would close due to his standoff with a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court. “X has no choice but to close (its) local operations in Brazil”wrote Elon Musk. “X service remains available for Brazilians”a separate company statement said. The group said it was forced to make the decision “protect security” of his staff on site. He assured that Judge Alexandre de Moraes had “threatened with arrest our legal representative in Brazil” in the event of non-compliance with what the social network considers to be decisions of “censorship” aimed at blocking certain content.

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“The decision to close X’s offices in Brazil was difficult”said Elon Musk. “But if we had accepted Alexandre de Moraes’ secret (illegal) censorship and requests for the transfer of private information, we would not have been able to explain our actions without feeling ashamed.” The Secretary of Digital Policies in the Brazilian government, Joao Brant, criticized the“pathetic attitude” of X. According to him, the social network causes a “probable escalation which could lead to the blocking of the platform”.

In the name of the fight against disinformation, the judge has ordered in recent years the blocking of the accounts of influential figures of the Brazilian ultra-conservative movements. And this in particular since the attempts of supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, admirer of Elon Musk, to discredit the electronic voting system during the election won by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.