Recently, the Brazilian Supreme Court unanimously upheld the decision of one of its justices to block billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X.
X has 40 million users in Brazil and they have been affected by it
Recently, the Brazilian Supreme Court unanimously upheld the decision of one of its justices to block billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X.
As per media reports, the judges bench came to a broader consensus stating that the effort by Musk and his supporters to cast Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an authoritarian figure who is curbing political freedom in Brazil does not hold water.
Out of the 11 panel members who presided in a virtual session, five of them, including Moraes ordered the platform to be blocked.
The court order stated that X will stay suspended until it complies with his orders and pays the outstanding fines that have exceeded $3 million as of last week.
How did the feud between X and the Supreme Court of Brazil begin?
The tussle between Elon Musk and Brazil's Supreme Court reached a boiling point on August 31, when Justice Alexandre de Moraes placed a nationwide ban on the social media platform for failing to comply with the country's laws and regulations.
In April 2024, the Supreme Court of Brazil ordered many accounts to be taken down for spreading disinformation. These accounts reportedly belonged to supporters of Jair Bolsanaro, the former president of Brazil, who is known for his far-right views.
X initially agreed and took down the accounts in question.
It is reportedly stated that the Brazil's government affairs team threatened that if the accounts would not be taken down, a daily fine of $ 20,000 dollars would be levied on X.
However, Elon Musk resorted those accounts and called out Justice de Moraes to "resign or be impeached," as per reports.
Alexandre de Moraes in response ordered an investigation into X for obstruction of the country's justice system.
The ultimatum was given by Justice Moraes on August 29, when it issued a 24-hours for X to hire a legal representation and face the case or face suspension.
Since no action was taken from X, Brazil ordered a nationwide ban on X with the app being removed from Apple and Google
Elon Musk's Response to the Ban:
In response to the ban, Musk took to X stating that democracy is based on free speech and that the Brazilian government is trying to curb it for political purposes.
The ban on X was further held on September 2, as the X mobile app and its web version became inaccessible to users in Brazil.
Many users in Brazil have turned to other platforms such as Threads and Bluesky.
X has 40 million users in Brazil.
It is reported that Brazilians who use X via VPN will be fined 50,000 dollars.
What happened after that?
Since X was banned in Brazil, many users in the country took to the platform Bluesky.
The social media platform saw a surge in the number of users and it reached 1 million in three days.
Bluesky took to its social media platform to announce its achievement.
"Brazil, you're setting new all-time-highs for activity on Bluesky!,” said Bluesky in a post on the platform," it said.
Bluesky's CEO Jay Garber expressed his delight over the surge of users in the platform, stating, “Good job Brazil, you made the right choice.” The platform, which fully opened to the public in February 2024, has over 7.6 million users now.
Bluesky was founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and was launched as a Twitter-backed project in 2019 and emerged as an alternative to many social media platforms for Brazilian users.
Other countries where X is banned:
The decision taken by the Supreme Court of Brazil to ban X is not something new. The decision to take action against X had taken place in countries like China, Iran, Turkmenistan Pakistan and Venezuela.
Banning social media platforms is done to prevent dissident and anti-establishment voices from expressing their views and opinions.