Elon Musk and staying in the news go hand in hand. Now, the tech mogul is under fire in Brazil. A Supreme Court justice opened an inquiry against Musk after the latter announced that he would reactivate accounts on X that had been ordered by the same judge to be blocked.
Musk asked Judge Alexandre de Moraes to resign after he ordered the blocking of accounts. Musk is of the view that blocking accounts is unconstitutional. The accounts in question are yet to be disclosed. Neither X nor the Brazilian authorities have disclosed the details of the accounts. Moraes is spearheading a campaign intended to bring to justice the “social media warriors” who promoted fake news and hate speech during the reign of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and is also leading an investigation into an alleged coup attempt by Bolsonaro.
However, Musk has little concern about why the accounts were ordered to be blocked. The tech giant is a “so-called free speech advocate” and, in retaliation of the order, has stated that Moraes has “brazenly and repeatedly” betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil.
“This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees, and cut off access to X in Brazil,” he said in the post.
“As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”
As a result, Moraes also made Musk part of the investigation and accused him of obstructing the judicial process. In his decision, Moraes said: “X shall refrain from disobeying any court order already issued, including performing any profile reactivation that this Supreme Court has blocked.” Additionally, the company will be fined 100,000 reais ($19,740) per day, the judge said in a statement released to the media, unless it blocks the accounts.
The Solicitor General, Jorge Messias, of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s leftist government expressed support for Moraes. He demanded that regulation of foreign social media platforms is paramount to ensure they do not violate Brazilian laws.
“We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities,” Messias said in a post on X.
Last year Moraes also took charge against Telegram and Alphabet after they were spearheading a campaign to malign a proposed bill by the Brazilian authorities. The bill puts the responsibility on internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts. It would also impose heavy fines for failures to do so.