Aug. 30 (UPI) — The social media platform X faces a potential ban in Brazil after it failed to meet a Thursday night deadline to name a legal representative in the country.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday ordered X to appoint a legal representative within 24 hours or face suspension until one is named.
According to Brazilian law, social media platforms must have someone available in their country to receive takedown notice information in alleged cases of misinformation.
X has not had someone in this position since it closed its offices in Brazil, alleging that Moraes had asked X to censor political opponents in violation of “Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law.”
X’s Global Government Affairs account wrote after the deadline expired that it expected Moraes would shut down X in Brazil because it would not “comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
“In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency,” it wrote. “Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders.
“To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech.”
As of early Friday morning, Brazilians continued to have access to X.
De Moraes had previously ordered all X accounts blamed for spreading disinformation, many of them supporters of former conservative president Jair Bolsonaro, must be blocked while they investigate the charges.
The Brazilian Supreme Court also froze the bank accounts of Musk’s space satellite service Starlink in the country.
Musk had threatened to reactivate the accounts and on Wednesday night shared a manipulated image showing Moraes behind the bars of a prison cell, threatining that one day “this picture of you in prison will be real.”
