2024-08-31 09:19:39
24-hour ultimatum
Hate speech and fake news: Judge wants to block Musk service in Brazil
31.08.2024 – 09:12 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
A controversial federal judge in Brazil wants to enforce the blocking of accounts on X because of hate speech and fake news. Owner Elon Musk refuses. Now the service is to be blocked.
After months of dispute with tech billionaire Elon Musk, a Brazilian judge has ordered the blocking of his online platform X. The National Telecommunications Authority must implement the order within 24 hours, ordered Judge Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court.
He accuses Twitter’s successor X of not doing enough to combat the spread of hate speech and fake news. Musk, for his part, refers to freedom of speech and calls the judge an “evil dictator.”
The conflict recently escalated: A judge ordered X to block the accounts of right-wing activists who spread conspiracy theories and false information. Elon Musk described this demand as illegal, whereupon the online platform did not comply with the request and did not pay the imposed fine.
In mid-August, Elon Musk closed X’s office in Brazil, citing concerns about the possible arrest of the then representative. This week, Judge Alexandre de Moraes gave the platform an ultimatum: a legal representative had to be appointed within 24 hours, otherwise the platform would be blocked. However, Musk let the deadline pass.
Instead, he stirred up sentiment against Moraes on X, where he has 196 million followers. Among other things, he posted a picture that was allegedly created by AI and shows a man who looks like the judge and is behind bars. Musk said: One day this will be reality, “mark my words”.
On Friday, the judge also initially ordered that users who circumvent the block with technical solutions such as VPN services would face a fine of 50,000 Brazilian reals (around 8,000 euros) per day. A few hours later, this was withdrawn following criticism. VPN tunnels can give a user the impression that they are in another country. They are a common means of circumventing online blocks.
The initial instruction to Google and Apple to remove the X app from their download stores and block its use within five days was also lifted. This was to avoid “inconvenience for other companies,” Moraes explained.
Elon Musk, who identifies with the American right and is known as a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, often presents himself as a defender of freedom of expression.
In the current controversy, he accuses a judge of exercising censorship. “Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator disguised as a judge,” Musk wrote on X. At the same time, under his leadership, X has given in to government demands in India, for example, and blocked certain accounts and content.
X was recently also used in Brazil to mobilize for anti-democratic actions. So-called digital militias from the circle of the right-wing ex-president Jair Bolsonaro spread fake news and hate speech on social networks.
Some of the accounts that Moraes demanded X block contradicted the legitimacy of Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat and showed sympathy for his supporters who stormed the parliament building and the Supreme Court at the time.
As advertising revenues in the US home market are falling following the platform’s shift to the right under Musk, foreign markets such as Brazil, with more than 200 million inhabitants, have become more important for X’s finances. According to media reports, X has around 20 million users in the Latin American country.