Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation

BRASILIA - Brazil's Supreme Court said Tuesday it was lifting a ban on Elon Musk's social network X, which was blocked in its biggest Latin American market for over a month amid a row over disinformation.

"I authorise the immediate return of the activities" of the social platform, Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in his ruling, after X settled millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders.

He gave Brazil's communications regulator 24 hours to make the platform previously known as Twitter accessible again to its millions of Brazilian users.

Musk had yet to react to the decision.

Moraes has for months been embroiled in a standoff with the world's richest man, a self-declared "free speech absolutist," over a flood of online disinformation related to Brazil's 2022 election campaign.

On Aug 31, the tensions came to a head when Moraes dramatically blocked X for failing to deactivate the accounts of dozens of supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and to name a new legal representative in Brazil.

The row, which pitted freedom of expression against corporate responsibility, was closely watched worldwide.

A furious Musk lashed out at Moraes by calling him an "evil dictator" and dubbing him "Voldemort" after the villain from the "Harry Potter" series.

Moraes, for his part, accused the platform of undermining democracy by allowing disinformation to flourish -- a position backed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who declared that the state would not "be intimidated by individuals, companies or digital platforms that believe themselves to be above the law."

X eventually complied with all of Moraes's demands in order to have the suspension lifted.

Last week, the judge confirmed that the company had also settled around $5.2 million in fines.

- Biggest Latin American market -

With more than one mobile phone per inhabitant, Brazilians are among the most connected people in the world.

X had 22 million users in the country before it was blocked.

Many Brazilians, including Lula, migrated to other platforms such as Threads or Bluesky, the social media network created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

But neither has come close to attracting the kind of audience enjoyed by X.

X's fight with Moraes began during the October 2022 election, in which Bolsonaro failed to win a second term.

It escalated following attacks by Bolsonaro supporters on federal buildings in Brasilia after Lula's inauguration in January 2023.

The destruction by supporters of Bolsonaro, dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics," drew comparisons with the January 2021 attacks by supporters of then US president Donald Trump on the US Capitol.

Halfway through its suspension X briefly made a return in Brazil in mid-September, after a technical workaround which it claimed was "inadvertent."

But it went back offline again after Moraes threatened it with more fines for non-compliance. - Ramon Sahmkow / AFP