Brazil blocks Starlink accounts in standoff with Elon Musk

The social media platform X is on the brink of being taken down in the Latin American country

Elon Musk’s Starlink announced that Brazil’s top judge had ordered the company’s financial accounts in the country blocked amid an ongoing feud over the social media platform X.

Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet operator, said on Thursday it had received an order from Brazil’s Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes that “freezes Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions” in the country.

The court’s decision to sanction Starlink is a response to the lack of legal representatives in Brazil for X (formerly Twitter), a court source told Reuters.

De Moraes issued an order on Wednesday urging Musk to appoint the company’s new legal representative for X in Brazil within 24 hours or face its suspension in Latin America’s largest country.

Musk has slammed the move, claiming the platform is being punished for resisting censorship. The billionaire, who took control of Twitter in October 2022 and subsequently rebranded it as X, blasted de Moraes for “improperly punishing other shareholders and the people of Brazil.”

“SpaceX and X are two completely different companies with different shareholders. I own about 40% of SpaceX, so this [is an] absolutely illegal action by the dictator,” Musk wrote on his social media platform.

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Starlink claimed on X that de Moraes’ order was “issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed” by Brazil’s constitution.

“This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied — unconstitutionally — against X,” Starlink said.

X announced earlier this month that it would close operations and fire its staff in Brazil, citing alleged “censorship orders” issued by de Moraes, while keeping its service available for Brazilian users.

Earlier this year, de Moraes ordered the suspension of multiple X accounts allegedly belonging to “digital militias” – a group of influential people associated with right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro.

These so-called “digital militias” have been accused of spreading defamatory claims and threats against members of Brazil’s Supreme Court.

X said it expected de Moraes to order the shutdown “soon,” after the deadline passed on Thursday evening, because the company would not comply with the judge’s orders, which it described as an illegal act “to censor his political opponents.”