Brazil’s top court suspends Elon Musk’s X following free speech dispute

Brazil’s top court on Friday ordered the immediate suspension of Elon Musk’s X in the country, following a series of legal disputes over misinformation and hate messages on the platform.

The Supreme Court’s move to ban the network came after Musk, a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist, refused to comply with a court-imposed deadline of Thursday evening to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil.

The suspension of X which is used by an estimated 40 million Brazilians at least once a month, follows months of legal wrangling between its billionaire owner and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The feud began in April when de Moraes ordered the network formerly known as Twitter to block accounts accused of spreading false information and hate messages, saying it was harming Brazil’s democracy. This was fiercely disputed by Musk, who described the judge’s actions as censorship.

The suspension of X in Brazil, the world’s fourth-biggest democracy, will deal a blow to Musk’s ambitions to transform the platform into a “global town square.”

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