In the ongoing battle between Elon Musk and the Brazilian Supreme Court, it appears that Elon was the first to blink. At least a little bit.
What started to shape up as a new front in the battle, with Elon’s SpaceX defying the order to block X on its Starlink satellite internet service, crumbled on Tuesday as SpaceX announced it would comply, though under protest (some reports claim SpaceX missed the deadline to appeal the ruling, though). Of course, that was the adults at SpaceX saying that, and it’s always possible that Elon will look to overrule them. At the time of this posting, Elon hasn’t directly commented on SpaceX’s announcement yet.
Last week, we wrote about the still ongoing battle between the Brazilian Supreme Court and Elon Musk over his refusal to remove certain content (and share some information on users) from ExTwitter. It then morphed into a fight about having a “local representative” when Elon pulled ExTwitter out of Brazil entirely, after a threat was issued with the potential to jail local employees. On Friday, we wrote about the ban order issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The initial ban ordered basically every level of the telecom/internet infrastructure stack to ban access to ExTwitter. That included, among other things, that Apple and Google had to block it from their app stores in Brazil, that ISPs in Brazil had to block access to ExTwitter and its app, and that internet backbone and telecom providers also had to block access to ExTwitter.
There were also two more controversial parts of the ban. The first part told Apple and Google that they had to also block access to VPNs that might allow users to get around the bans. A later part threatened massive fines on Brazilians caught getting around the ban by any means, including using a VPN. A few hours after the initial order was released, Moraes backed down on the first part, temporarily suspending the order that Apple and Google block VPNs, though the fine for users still stood. Many people incorrectly thought that part was rescinded as well.
On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the overall ban. Moraes said that the ban on personal use for VPNs would only be enforced for users who sought to “engage in conduct that defrauds the court decision,” which seems somewhat broad and open to interpretation. One other judge wanted to limit the individual fines only to users who got around the ban and used it to post racist or fascist supporting content, but that request did not receive the necessary support from the other judges.
Still, there is an interesting element in all of this. Another of Elon’s offerings, Starlink from SpaceX, is one of those ISPs that would need to block access to ExTwitter in order to comply with the order. Given that Moraes had already started freezing SpaceX assets, it’s no surprise that Musk basically told Brazilian regulators he wasn’t going to abide by the blocking order either, according to the NY Times:
On Sunday, Starlink informed Brazil’s telecom agency, Anatel, that it would not block X until Brazilian officials released Starlink’s frozen assets, Anatel’s president, Carlos Baigorri, said in an interview broadcast by the Brazilian outlet Globo News.
Mr. Baigorri said he had received that response from Starlink’s lawyers. “Let’s wait and see if they formalize this in the records,” he said.
Mr. Baigorri said he had informed Justice Moraes “so that he can take the measures he deems appropriate.” Mr. Baigorri said his agency could revoke Starlink’s license to operate in Brazil, which would “hypothetically” prevent the company from offering connections to its Brazilian customers.
However, just a little while ago, Starlink announced that it was going to comply with the order, though it is doing so under protest. It posted to ExTwitter:
To our customers in Brazil (who may not be able to read this as a result of X being blocked by @alexandre):
The Starlink team is doing everything possible to keep you connected.
Following last week’s order from @alexandre that froze Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions in Brazil, we immediately initiated legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court explaining the gross illegality of this order and asking the Court to unfreeze our assets. Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing of our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil.
We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution.
There’s at least a bit of irony here, given that Elon’s famous “sorry to be a free speech absolutist” line came in saying he would not block news sources “unless at gunpoint.”
I guess he sees Brazil as holding a gun.
This came just a day after Elon posted wildly about why the US should seize Brazilian government assets in response to Brazil seizing Starlink assets. This was after Elon saw reports of the US seizing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane.
Of course, it is meaningless to declare that “Unless the Brazilian government returns the illegally seized property of ???? and SpaceX, we will seek reciprocal seizure of government assets too. Hope Lula enjoys flying commercial…” given that Elon is not in the government. However, if his preferred candidate, Donald Trump, wins, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an attempt to help his financial backer on this one.
Starlink represents an interesting leverage point in all of this. It has been used in Brazil for a few years now, including by some in the government. But, as NY Times’ Jack Nicas (who covers tech in Brazil) noted earlier this week, when it launched in Brazil, Elon pledged to hook up 19,000 Brazilian schools with Starlink.
Apparently that never actually happened. But it didn’t stop Elon from just retweeting someone claiming that it had happened.
Either way, this situation and Elon Musk’s vast empire make some of this stuff way more complicated than most any other comparable scenario.
It also seems unlikely to end here. Remember that the current fight is a follow-on to the fight back in April when ExTwitter at first refused to remove some content that Moraes demanded, then quietly backed down… only to then change its mind again later.
Indeed, there are reports coming out of Brazil as I finish this article saying that Moraes is ordering more Starlink seizures which could potentially impact users’ ability to even use the service at all. It’s unclear on the timing of that with regards to Starlink saying it would comply with the blocking. But since the seizures are more about punishing Musk for not complying with ExTwitter, rather than about Starlink itself, it seems likely that these will move forward.
