Brazil's top court has accused Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, of willfully circumventing a court-ordered ban and imposed a daily fine. The platform became accessible via third-party services, despite being banned since August 30. Justice Alexandre de Moraes warned that Musk's company Starlink will be liable for unpaid fines.
In a recent development, Brazil's top court, led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, has accused X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, of 'willful, illegal, and persistent' attempts to bypass a court-ordered block.
The court has imposed a daily fine of R$5 million (one million dollars if one dollar equivalent) for X's continued operation.
The platform has been banned in Brazil since August 30, due to its refusal to remove accounts spreading false information and hate speech.
Despite this, X became accessible to some Brazilian users through third-party cloud services like Cloudflare, Fastly, and Edgeuno.
Elon Musk, X's primary shareholder, confirmed the circumvention in a cryptic message.
Moraes stated that if X fails to pay fines, Musk’s satellite internet provider, Starlink, would be held liable.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro used X’s brief return to criticize Moraes, arguing that the ban represents prior censorship.