X requests it be reinstated in Brazil after complying with judge's orders, source says

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Louise Thomas

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Billionaire Elon Musk’s social media site X has complied with Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ orders and requested its service be reestablished in the country, a source said Thursday.

X complied with de Moraes’ orders to block certain accounts from the platform, name an official legal representative in the country, and pay fines imposed for not complying with court orders, his lawyers said in a petition filed Thursday, according to a source familiar with the document. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

On Saturday, de Moraes ordered the platform to submit additional documentation about its legal representative for court review, which the source said has been done.

X was blocked in the highly online country of 213 million people on Aug. 30. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after sparring with Musk for months over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

In a twist, X’s representative is the same person who held the position before X shuttered its office in Brazil. That happened after de Moraes threatened to arrest the person, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição, if X did not comply with orders to block accounts.

Brazil is not the first country to ban X, but such a drastic step has generally been limited to authoritarian regimes.

The platform and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan, for instance. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest.