Due to outstanding fines and the refusal to recognize a new legal representative, the Brazilian Supreme Court temporarily blocked the X platform across the country overnight. The conflict erupted after X failed to cooperate with the Brazilian state on disinformation and right-wing extremism.

VPN allowed and

The Supreme Court has now withdrawn a potential penalty for circumventing the block via VPN. Brazilians could therefore continue to use X via VPN. The removal of X from the Play and App Store has also been lifted, writes the ZDFHowever, the telecommunications authority Anatel has blocked access to X for the time being, so a VPN is mandatory.

Musk will take action against judges

In a first brief reaction, X opposes the verdict and speaks of “power to the people”.

Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, is less moderate on his own profile: In a series of posts he talks about publishing the “crimes” (X) of the responsible judge soon. Musk further described him as “dictator” and “cheater“The conflict is more likely to escalate than Musk will cooperate with the Brazilian state.

X in Brazil – how did the ban come about?

To understand these exaggerations on Musk’s part, it is worth taking a look at the last few months: Like many other countries, the Brazilian parliament has passed laws against hate speech, which are intended to encourage social networks to cooperate in the fight against fake news, for example.

No cooperation against hate speech

X put itself in the crosshairs a few months ago by spreading false information and calls for a coup against the incumbent president. The judge in charge, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered X to block accounts and share data with the authorities, including to find out the identities of residents who were involved in a coup attempt in early 2023. But X refused to do so, which sparked a legal dispute from which the platform also withdrew all employees and closed its office in São Paulo in the middle of the month.

… and in court proceedings

Judge de Moraes had therefore recently ordered that X (again) appoint a competent legal representative in order to be able to continue the negotiations and to settle the outstanding fines amounting to almost three million euros (Spiegel). X has now let a deadline of 24 hours pass and de Moraes has ordered the blocking.

Starlink also affected

While X could potentially lose millions of users as a result of the decision, Musk’s anger will probably not only be based on the X ban, as his satellite company Starlink is also indirectly affected, as the NZZ writes.

With Starlink, Musk is bringing internet to remote regions that do not have internet cables. The service is very popular in the South American country and also connects hospitals. Judge de Moraes had the company’s bank accounts frozen on Thursday. Any money that Starlink has in Brazil can be used to pay the outstanding X fines. For Musk, this means that two companies in Brazil are already affected by the judge’s decisions.

X also in trouble in the EU

X has also already gotten into trouble within the European Union. In July 2024, the EU Commission found a violation of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). This is the first procedure under the relatively new law, which is intended to make illegal content disappear from the Internet more quickly. The sister law for digital markets and thus against the formation of monopolies and for free competition is the Digital Markets Act – also known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The EU’s distrust of X’s ability to comply with local laws against hate speech and illegal content has recently reached such a level that EU Commissioner Thierry Breton reminded Musk in mid-August (Spiegel) that the laws also apply to him personally, after the billionaire had spread right-wing extremist views on X.

Here, too, the answer came promptly: Musk commented on the letter with a meme that called on the EU Commissioner to take a step back and read his “to fuck your own face“.