Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered Elon Musk’s X to stop bypassing a previous ruling that suspended the social media platform in the country. If X fails to comply, it faces a daily fine of 5 million reais ($921,726.95), according to a decision issued late on Wednesday.
X became accessible to many users in Brazil on Wednesday after the platform updated its communications network, effectively sidestepping the court-ordered block. As a result, the court has already imposed a 5-million-real fine for this action.
In August, following a prolonged dispute between Musk and Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court instructed Brazil’s mobile and internet service providers to block X, cutting off access within hours. Moraes, in his latest order, accused X, under Musk’s direct control, of intentionally attempting to undermine Brazil’s judiciary, claiming the platform employed a “strategy” to evade the ban.
X stated on Wednesday that a change in network providers had led to an “inadvertent and temporary service restoration” in Brazil. The company added that it remains committed to working with the Brazilian government to restore service “very soon.”
Pinheiro Neto Advogados, the Brazilian law firm representing X in the Supreme Court, declined to comment on Thursday.
Courts have previously blocked accounts linked to investigations involving misinformation and hate speech, actions Musk has criticized as censorship. The courts have also ordered X to appoint a local representative, as mandated by Brazilian law.
Brazil’s national telecommunications agency, Anatel, said it is working to block X’s access through Cloudflare, the content delivery network used to bypass the block. According to a source, this action is expected to take effect by the end of Thursday. Authorities suspect X may have also used other platforms, such as Fastly and EdgeUno, to circumvent the ban.
Anatel is reaching out to San Francisco-based Fastly and Brazil’s EdgeUno on Thursday to confirm if they are providing unauthorized access to X, according to a source familiar with the situation. Anatel contacted Cloudflare on Wednesday, and the company agreed to cooperate with Brazilian authorities. The suspension of services will not impact access to other networks using the same cloud infrastructure.
At the current exchange rate, $1 equals 5.4246 reais.
