Watan-A judge in the Brazilian Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered an investigation against billionaire Elon Musk on suspicion of “exploiting the X platform for criminal purposes.”
In a judicial memorandum, the judge warned the X platform against disobeying any judicial order, including reactivating any account that the Supreme Court had ordered to be banned.
It was cautioned that the platform would be subject to a fine of 100,000 Brazilian reais (approximately 18,300 euros) for each reactivated account.
Account bans on the X platform
It’s worth noting that this same judge had previously ordered the banning of accounts on X on charges of some of them disseminating misleading information.
In bold letters, the judge wrote in the memorandum that social media networks are not areas beyond the law.
This move came in response to a series of attacks by the owner of “X” against the judge starting from the evening of Saturday, April 6.
In response, the American billionaire who also owns Tesla and SpaceX said, “We might lose all our revenues in Brazil and be forced to close our offices there. But principles are more important than profit.”
This aggressive censorship appears to violate the law & will of the people of Brazil https://t.co/Vuxerg2L9w
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 6, 2024
Musk accuses the Brazilian judge of betrayal
Musk resumed his attack on the judge, accusing him of “blatantly and repeatedly betraying the Brazilian constitution and its people” and demanding the judge’s resignation or dismissal.
It is worth noting that last year, Judge Moraes, who ordered an investigation against Elon Musk, also ordered an investigation into the CEOs of the Telegram and Google platforms belonging to Alphabet Inc., which were responsible for a campaign criticizing a proposed internet regulation law.
Yes! So why comply? Rumble and Locals didn’t. You’re powerful enough to make a difference.
— Paulo Figueiredo Filho (@realpfigueiredo) April 6, 2024
While the bill places the burden on internet companies, search engines, and social messaging services to find and report illegal content instead of leaving it to the courts, and imposes hefty fines for failure to do so.