Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes lifted freezes on Starlink and X bank accounts after transferring 18.35 million reais ($3.3 million) from those accounts to the national treasury.
The court issued this lift after determining that the transferred amount satisfied the fines X owed to Brazil, resulting from a dispute between Elon Musk and Moraes.
Moraes previously ordered a block on access to the X social media platform in Brazil, its sixth-largest market, because X failed to block accounts accused of spreading “fake news” and hate messages that threatened democracy, according to the judge. Musk challenged these orders, describing them as “censorship.”
Additionally, X failed to appoint a local legal representative, a requirement under Brazilian law. After missing the compliance deadline for court orders, Moraes froze Starlink’s accounts in Brazil to secure funds for covering X’s outstanding fines.
The Supreme Court clarified that Moraes has not lifted the block on X’s access in Brazil. X still has not addressed the legal representation issue, and the content removals ordered by the judge remain unfulfilled. In addition to his ownership of X and 40% of Starlink’s parent company SpaceX, Musk also serves as CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla.
(Conversion rate: $1 = 5.5488 reais)
