Key points:
It comes as a penalty, charged daily, of 5 million reals – some $920,000, amid reports that X was attempting to bypass an operating ban in the country along with Starlink.
It has been noted that X used dynamic internet protocol addresses, enabling users in Brazil to access the platform even when a country-wide suspension was in effect.
The Supreme Court of Brazil earlier ruled that X violated the federal laws and in August ordered a suspension nationwide.
According to Brazil’s supreme court on Thursday, Elon Musk’s platform X had been incurring significant daily penalties for allegedly attempting to bypass a ban on its operations.
The fines, imposed by Brazil’s supreme court amount to a total of 5 million Brazilian reals-about $920,000-a day. The court said it would hold “joint liability” for Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX. Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes originally ordered the suspension of X in Brazil at the end of August; a decision that was upheld by a panel of justices at the beginning of September.
Under Musk, X violated Brazilian laws that require social media companies to have a representative in the country and to remove hate speech and other content promoting destruction of democratic institutions,” the court said. The court also said that the company failed to suspend accounts accused of doxxing federal officials.
More recently, X shifted to servers operated by Cloud flare and appeared to be relying on dynamic internet protocol addresses that changed frequently and enabled the platform to support multiple users in Brazil. The company earlier relied on static IP addresses in Brazil, which are easier for internet service providers to block upon request from regulators.
Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has been loudly critical of de Moraes for months and continued that criticism in the aftermath of the order. Musk has framed him as a villain; he once compared him to Darth Vader and another time to Harry Potter’s Voldemort. Musk has also continually called for de Moraes’ impeachment.
Earlier, Brazil had withdrawn the fine amounts levied on X from the accounts of X and Starlink at financial institutions in the country. The fresh penalties will come into force from September 19, with the court ordering it “according to the number of days of disobedience” of its earlier orders to block X throughout the country. While Musk styles himself as a champion of absolute free speech, X has complied with a raft of regulatory demands.
