Moraes releases X in Brazil, who could return at any moment

2024-10-08 20:21:31

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Last Tuesday (8), the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, approved the unblocking of X in Brazil.

The decision came after the social network made and communicated the payment of the fines due, Caixa Econômica Federal transferred the amount to the correct account and the PGR expressed its support for the unblocking. It is worth mentioning that the return of the social network now depends on other issues.

“I decree the end of the suspension and authorize the immediate resumption of the activities of x Brasil internet ltda. in the national territory and I order Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) to adopt the necessary measures for the implementation of the provision, informing this Supreme Court within 24 (twenty-four) hours”, wrote Moraes.

The social network awaits the next steps for returning to Brazil (Image: rafapress/Shutterstock)

X has been offline for more than a month

• OX was suspended in Brazil by order of Moraes on August 30;
• This is because the company had to pay approximately 28.6 million in fines and had not complied with several magistrates’ orders, such as the blocking of profiles investigated by the Supreme Court, which would have spread hate speech, attacks on democracy and others;
• The negotiations for the unfreezing began on Tuesday (1), when X announced that he would pay the sum with his own resources, thus requesting the unfreezing of the accounts of Starlink, another company in Elon Musk’s empire.

The company’s suspension in Brazil came about because X closed its headquarters in Brazil on August 17, and under Brazilian law, no company can operate in the country without a local representative.

Given the difficulty of finding accounts on social networks after leaving Brazil, the solution found by Moraes was to block Starlink’s assets, which had blocked R$11 million. Previously, R$7.3 million from X had been allocated to the Union.

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For two days, the platform circumvented the block by redirecting its servers to another IP address, which allowed Brazilian users to access it again. Due to this maneuver, the STF imposed an additional fine of R$10 million on the company. Since he was left without a legal representative in the country, he was fined an additional R$300,000.

Additionally, X had to do the following:

• Block nine profiles under investigation;
• Appointment of the new legal representative in Brazil.

The first unblocking request from X arrived on September 26, when he handed over the documents to the STF declaring that he had complied with all the determinations. Moraes, however, rejected the request, specifying that some fines had not yet been paid.

In Tuesday’s decision (1), the judge also requested the unfreezing of the company’s bank accounts, to allow the payment of the fines. Previously, Starlink accounts had also received permission to be released, but both X and Starlink said the situation had not yet been regularized.

X respected all of Moraes’ decisions (Image: kovop/Shutterstock)