Musk's clash with Brazil deepens, risking shut down of X and Starlink

By Daniel Carvalho

Fallout from the clash between Elon Musk and Brazil’s top court justice spread across the billionaire’s companies as the judge vowed to shut down X and blocked Starlink bank accounts in Latin America’s largest economy.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes is spearheading efforts to combat fake news and hate speech in Brazil. Musk, and the country’s right-wingers, including former President Jair Bolsonaro, say the judge is overstepping his bounds and undermining free speech.

The order to block bank accounts from Musk’s satellite internet provider was issued by Moraes on Aug. 18, according to local news website G1, and in a bid to force him to pay for fines imposed on social media platform X. A person with knowledge of the situation at the Supreme Court confirmed the report. Starlink says it has a quarter million customers in Brazil.

 

Brazil’s top court didn’t comment on the report. Musk lashed out at Moraes, calling him a “criminal masquerading as a judge” in a post on X that made reference to the situation of both companies in the country.

Starlink confirmed in a sequence of posts on X, the social media platform formerly know as Twitter, that an order from Moraes froze the company’s finances and prevented it from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.

“This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied — unconstitutionally — against X,” the company said, adding it intends “to address the matter legally.”

Moraes on Wednesday threatened to block X in Brazil if the company doesn’t appoint a legal representative in the country by Thursday night.

The decision came days after the platform said it would close its operations in Brazil, while keeping the service available to its estimated 20 million active users in the country.

Musk responded to the order with an apparently AI-generated picture of a man resembling Moraes behind bars. “One day, Alexandre, this picture of you in prison will be real. Mark my words,” Musk posted.