'X' announces its imminent closure in Brazil after not succumbing to Judge Alexandre de Moraes' censorship orders

Famous social network X (formerly Twitter) announced Thursday that it is ready for an imminent shutdown in Brazil, following a long-running legal dispute with Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes.

"Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others," X announced from its global affairs account.

X's announcement came after Judge de Moraes threatened to suspend the social network in the country if Elon Musk did not appoint a new legal representative for the company in Brazil and pay the outstanding daily fines within 24 hours.

"When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him," X claimed, practically foreshadowing an imminent shutdown for not yielding to the Brazilian judge's censorship orders.

"We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that," the platform insisted from its global affairs account.

"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. 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."

Elon Musk cited the publication of the global affairs account and harshly questioned the Brazilian judge: "Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge."

In addition to going against X, this Thursday, de Moraes blocked the satellite internet company Starlink's local bank accounts, which is 40% owned by Musk. This came after the judge issued an order preventing the company from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.

According to Reuters, the Supreme Court's decision to sanction Starlink came in response to X, a separate company, failing to appoint a legal representative in Brazil and paying fines totaling at least $20 million reais (about $3.6 million). Those fines were generated because X refused to hand over documents requested by the Supreme Court. According to Musk, they would go against the platform's basic principles of freedom of expression.

Judge de Moraes' decision to go after Starlink despite being a different company than X generated harsh criticism.

"This is absolutely insane A rogue judge in Brazil is taking more than 250k customers offline because... he doesn't like free speech," wrote Shaun Maguire, a well-known partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia.

Judge de Moraes' prosecution of X could result in Musk's company shutting down in one of its most coveted markets in Latin America at a time when the company is struggling to increase advertising revenue.