Brazil’s Supreme Court has announced that anyone in the country using a VPN to access X will be fined up to $8,874 a day. Elon Musk has responded on X, formerly Twitter, calling the country’s leadership an “oppressive regime.”
The social media platform owner posted his thoughts about the news after it was revealed to the public. “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries,” he wrote.
Earlier this week, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes warned Musk that X could potentially be blocked in Brazil if a legal representative wasn’t appointed within 24 hours.
He followed through with the ban, with the ruling being that it will remain in effect until the platform names a new legal representative in the company — plus pays the fines it owes for breaking Brazilian laws.
The news that this is happening shouldn’t be a surprise due to the ongoing feud between X and Brazil’s leadership.
On Aug. 17, X shut down its Brazilian representative office following De Moraes’ threats to prosecute local representatives due to not complying with orders to block users.
Prior to that, the country’s Supreme Court had previously given orders to block a number of X accounts as a part of Brazil’s effort to halt the spreading of misinformation online centered around the country’s government.
In April, Musk threatened to not follow a court order to ban certain X accounts and spoke out against the country’s “aggressive censorship.”
This prompted Brazil’s attorney general Jorge Messias to share a statement about pushing for better regulation of social media platforms.
“It is urgent to regulate social networks,” he wrote. “We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities.”
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