Social media platform says shutdown ‘effective immediately’ but Brazilian users will still have access to X.

Social media giant X has announced it will shutter its operations in Brazil following a legal tussle with a top Brazilian judge over the platform’s rights and responsibilities to counter disinformation.

The platform, previously known as Twitter, said on Saturday the shutdown was “effective immediately” but that Brazilian users would still have access to X.

“We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision,” the company said, adding that responsibility for the decision “lies solely” with Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes.

The move is the apparent culmination of a continuing legal battle between Moraes, who has said he is trying to fight the spread of disinformation online, and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X.

Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts accused of spreading false news and hate messages, including some belonging to supporters of Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro repeatedly peddled false claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud before a tightly contested 2022 election.

Months after he was defeated by left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a mob of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the top state institutions in the South American country in anger over the results.

“Freedom of expression doesn’t mean freedom of aggression,” Moraes, who presides over Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal, has said.

“It doesn’t mean the freedom to defend tyranny.”

Due to demands by “Justice” @Alexandre in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law, 𝕏 has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil.

He is an utter disgrace to justice. https://t.co/yAvX1TpuRp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2024

On Saturday, X claimed Moraes secretly threatened one of the company’s legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to take down some content from its platform.

The social media giant published pictures of a document allegedly signed by Moraes that says a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest decree would be imposed against X representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if the platform did not fully comply with Moraes’s orders.

Brazil’s Supreme Court told the Reuters news agency that it would not speak on the matter and would not confirm nor deny the authenticity of the document shared by X.

In a separate social media post on Saturday, Musk called Moraes “an utter disgrace to justice”.

“The decision to close the X office in Brazil was difficult,” said Musk, adding that if the company had agreed to the judge’s orders, “there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”

Moraes opened an inquiry earlier this year into the billionaire after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked.

After Musk’s challenges, X representatives reversed course and told Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with the legal rulings.

Lawyers representing X in Brazil in April told the Supreme Court that “operational faults” have allowed users who were ordered blocked to stay active on the platform, after Moraes had asked X to explain why it allegedly had not fully complied with his decisions.