Last month, Brazil's Supreme Court ordered a nationwide block of X for its failure to appoint a local legal representative. While it's reassuring to know that even billionaire-funded social media giants aren't above the law, the court's decision highlights that there is a fine line between platform regulation efforts and censorship.
The decision was somewhat overshadowed by the months-long public feud between X owner Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who handed down the block.
Moraes had included X and several other platforms in investigations targeting 'digital militias'. These were accounts accused of spreading disinformation and hate speech in the wake of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro's election defeat and the subsequent storming of government buildings in January 2023.
Nonetheless, in April of this year, Musk publicly defied Moraes's orders to remove some of these accounts. He referred to the Supreme Court Justice as a 'dictator', called for his impeachment and joked that he looked like the spawn of Voldemort and a Sith Lord. Moraes, meanwhile, accused Musk of obstructing Brazilian justice and disrespecting its sovereignty.
But this isn't just a spat between a CEO and a judge. Brazil, like many other countries, has been grappling for years with how to balance the principles of free expression and media pluralism with rules that address illegal and harmful content.
Brazil is also home to millions of dedicated internet users, and over 20 million of them were active on X. No doubt many of us have encountered the phrase 'Come to Brazil!' somewhere in our internet travels, a now famous internet meme born from the consistency with which Brazilian fans wrote it under celebrity posts. Kaitlyn Tiffany has written a memorable piece in The Atlantic about how these users have played a strong role in developing online fan cultures, with some now feeling resentful towards both Musk and the Brazilian judiciary for the loss of their accounts.
Although a portion of those X users have flocked to BlueSky, some critics view the court's decision as an attack on free speech and political opposition; thousands of Bolsonaro supporters recently took part in a pro-free speech protest in São Paulo. Not only that, but people caught accessing X in Brazil – even through a VPN – face a daily fine of around 50,000 BRL (almost US$9,000).
Supporters of the ban say it was an 'inevitable outcome' of the platform's continued non-compliance with national regulations, and that this may add to the 'growing mood' that social media companies are not above the law.
Either way, the case is a complex one that highlights the difficulties in balancing competing interests, and many will be watching with great interest to see how it pans out.
Tamara Markus, CMT Researcher