Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated on Friday that billionaire Elon Musk must comply with the rulings of Brazil’s Supreme Court, as tensions escalate over the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The platform faces the threat of being shut down in Brazil due to its failure to appoint a legal representative in the country.
While X continued to function normally in Brazil on Friday morning, the platform revealed on Thursday that it anticipated an imminent shutdown order from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, following the expiration of a court-imposed deadline to identify a legal representative in Brazil.
Compounding the dispute, the court also froze the local bank accounts of Musk’s Starlink satellite internet company, which, according to a source, was a response to X’s failure to comply with legal requirements in Brazil.
Brazilian law mandates that social media companies have a legal representative based within the country. To enforce a shutdown, Justice Moraes would need to order telecommunication companies to block X’s traffic in Brazil.
