Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Musk to appoint X’s new legal representative in the country within 24 hours
08/29/2024
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Alexandre de Moraes — Foto: Rosinei Coutinho/SCO/STF
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court used its X account to announce a ruling by Justice Alexandre de Moraes against the social media platform. In the post, Mr. Moraes ordered Elon Musk, the owner of X, to appoint a legal representative for his company in Brazil. Mr. Moraes also threatened to suspend X’s operations in the country if the company continues to disregard court orders.
The official account of the Supreme Court tagged the profiles “@GlobalAffairs” and “@elonmusk” in the post and attached the document signed by the judge.
In recent weeks, the social media platform began to disclose confidential decisions from Mr. Moraes using the company’s official profile. Now, Mr. Moraes used the same method to notify Mr. Musk. On August 17, the company announced, also in a post on the platform, that it would “cease operations” in Brazil.
In the post, the justice ordered the appointment, within 24 hours, of the name and qualifications of the new legal representative of the company in Brazil, “under penalty of immediate suspension of the social media X (formerly Twitter) until the court orders are effectively complied with and the daily fines paid.”
In April, Justice Alexandre de Moraes launched an investigation into Elon Musk after the businessman announced he would defy court orders and publicly release content from profiles blocked by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court. Mr. Musk was also implicated in a separate investigation into the activities of so-called “digital militias,” which are groups known for spreading disinformation and attacking political opponents. This investigation is targeting allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
After that, there were new episodes of confrontations between the justice and the billionaire. Recently, the social media platform also ignored a decision from Brazil’s electoral court to suspend the profile of Pablo Marçal, a candidate for the mayor of São Paulo.
In light of the successive clashes, justices Dias Toffoli, Luiz Fux, and Edson Fachin, rapporteurs of three cases dealing with the Internet Civil Framework and digital platforms in the Supreme Court, decided to include their cases in the court’s agenda for a vote.
Last week, they asked Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso for the cases to be analyzed together, preferably in November. The date of the trial has not yet been set.
*Por Isadora Peron — Brasília
Source: Valor International