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Brazil Supreme Court Lifts Ban On Musk’s X

Moraes has for months been embroiled in a standoff with Musk, the world's richest man, over a flood of online disinformation related to Brazil's 2022 election campaign.


(FILES) A photo taken on March 11, 2024 shows the logo of US online social media and social networking service X – formerly Twitter – on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. – Social network X has suspended its much-criticized use of European users’ personal data to drive its artificial intelligence program, according to a statement from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

Brazil’s Supreme Court said Tuesday it was lifting a ban on Elon Musk’s T X, which was blocked in its biggest Latin American market for over a month amid a row over disinformation.

“I authorize the immediate return of the activities” of the social platform, Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in his ruling, after X settled millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders.

He gave Brazil’s communications regulator 24 hours to make X accessible again to its millions of Brazilian users.

Moraes has for months been embroiled in a standoff with Musk, the world’s richest man, over a flood of online disinformation related to Brazil’s 2022 election campaign.

In August, the tensions came to a head when Moraes dramatically blocked X for failing to comply with his demands to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading disinformation, and to name a new legal representative in Brazil.

The row, which pitted freedom of expression against corporate responsibility, was closely watched worldwide.

A furious Musk lashed out at Moraes by calling him an “evil dictator,” but X eventually complied with all of Moraes’s demands in order to have the suspension lifted.

Last week, Moraes confirmed that the company had also settled around $5.2 million in fines