The one of X’s legal representatives with arresting him if he did not “comply with his censorship orders. “
According to Reuters, de Moreas demanded that X remove certain content from its platform. Instead of complying, X chose to close its local operations “for the protection of our staff. ”
According to X, de Moraes made those threats in a “secret order,” which he shared publicly. The owner of X, Elon Musk, claimed that this requirement would “force us to violate (secretly) Brazilian, Argentine, U. S. and foreign laws. “He added: “The resolution to close X’s workplace in Brazil was difficult, but if we had agreed to the secret (illegal) censorship of @alexandre and their requests for personal information, we would not be able to make our moves without shame. “
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we did not respect his censorship orders. He did so under a secret order, which we share here to disclose his actions. Although our appeals to the Supreme Court have not been heard,. . . pic. twitter. com/Pm2ovyydhE
– Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
“Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,” X said in a statement on its Global Government Affairs account. “[de Moraes’] actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make — democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.”
Musk has been attacking De Moraes for months. In April, he said he would defy lawmakers’ orders to block sure accounts in Brazil, saying they were unconstitutional. In response, de Moraes opened an obstruction of justice investigation opposed to Musk. X said later in April that he would comply with all orders issued through Brazil’s courts.
In the same month, the House Judiciary Committee released an interim report stating that the Brazilian government seeks to force X (and other social media platforms) to censor more than three hundred accounts. He said the accounts included those belonging to former Brazilians. President Jair Bolsonaro, member of the country’s federal Senate and journalist.
X does not have a public relations team available for comment.