'Difficult decision': Elon Musk after X closes operations in Brazil with immediate effect

Social media platform X said on Saturday it would close its operations in Brazil "effective immediately" due to what it called "censorship orders" from Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes. Alexandre de Moraes is a Brazilian jurist, president of the Superior Electoral Court and a justice of the Supreme Federal Court of the country.

Media platform X announced closing its operations in Brazil “effective immediately” due to what it called “censorship orders” from Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes. Elon Musk, the CEO of X, stated that it was a tough choice. A few hours later, Musk posted on X, saying, “The decision to close the office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”

According to X, Moraes threatened to surreptitiously arrest one of its Brazilian legal agents if the company disobeyed court orders to remove certain information from its site. A request for comment from the Brazilian Supreme Court, on which Moraes sits, was not immediately answered. Brazilian jurist Alexandre de Moraes is a justice of the nation's Supreme Federal Court as well as the head of the Superior Electoral Court.

According to X, Moraes threatened to surreptitiously arrest one of its Brazilian legal agents if the company disobeyed court orders to remove certain information from its site. A request for comment from the Brazilian Supreme Court, on which Moraes sits, was not immediately answered.

Brazilians may still access the X service, according to a statement made on Saturday by entrepreneur Elon Musk's platform.

Earlier this year, after Musk declared he would revive X accounts that the judge had ordered be blocked, Moraes launched an investigation against the billionaire. The Moraes' choices about X have been dubbed "unconstitutional" by Musk. Following Musk's objections, X officials changed their minds and informed the Brazilian Supreme Court that the massive social media company will abide by the court's decisions.

In April, attorneys for X in Brazil informed the Supreme Court that "operational faults" had let users to continue using the social networking site after they were ordered to be stopped. This occurred after Moraes had questioned X about why it purportedly had not complied with his rulings in full.