RIO DE JANEIRO — For more than three weeks, a question has loomed over Brazil and much of the tech world: Who would back down first?
Would it be Elon Musk, whose refusal to comply with orders from a Brazilian judge had resulted in the suspension of the social network in one of its largest markets?
Or would it be Alexandre de Moraes, the taciturn jurist who issued the order?
This weekend appears to have brought an answer.
The social network X, formerly known as Twitter, said Friday that it had taken steps to comply with demands issued by the Brazilian Supreme Court to end the impasse that has severed the company from one of its most active markets. These included naming a representative in the country and blocking accounts that Moraes had accused of propagating misinformation and undermining Brazilian democracy. Much of the company’s fines have also been paid off.
Moraes responded on Saturday with a short judicial order that asked for additional documents. He gave the company five days to complete the paperwork to legalize its presence in Brazil and asked several agencies to inquire into X’s legal standing in Brazil.
He did not provide a timeline for when X might resume operations in Brazil, or if it will.
The judicial compliance by X amounts to nothing short of capitulation by the billionaire tech mogul, who has sought to assume the global mantle of right-wing free speech champion since he took over the social network in 2022.
In Brazil, one of X’s most active markets, Musk found not only a battleground to wage his ideological campaign but perhaps his most bitter political opponent in Moraes.
In many ways, the men are opposites. Musk is a glib billionaire who courts controversy and the spotlight. Moraes, an austere jurist, almost exclusively communicates with the world in the dense legalese of his judicial orders. In the global schism over the limits of free speech amid polarization and misinformation, each have come to represent opposite poles.
Musk has overseen the loosening of speech guardrails on X, pushed for a network where most everything is permissible and cozied up to political figures accused of wielding misinformation to enhance their power.
Moraes, through his role as director of the Brazilian Supreme Court’s investigation into fake news on social media, has transformed himself into one of the world’s most aggressive prosecutors of misinformation. He frequently issues directives to tech companies to suspend accounts he accuses of spreading misinformation that could endanger Brazil’s democracy.
The men have frequently clashed in recent months over such orders, often in personal language. Musk has called Moraes a dictator and derided him as a Brazilian Lord Voldemort, the villain in the Harry Potter series. Moraes has named Musk a target in a criminal investigation and tied him to what he calls “digital militias” threatening to rupture Brazilian democracy.
August standoff
The mutual animosity deepened in August. Musk continued to refuse to suspend accounts targeted by Moraes’s probe. Moraes upped the fines. X didn’t pay. Then Moraes ordered the arrest of attorney Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova, who was acting as X’s legal representative in Brazil.
In response, Musk removed Villa Nova from her post and pulled X’s physical presence from Brazil, a legal requirement to operate as a business in the country. Moraes told him to name a new representative — or else he would suspend the network. Musk refused. And on Aug. 30, Moraes ordered the suspension of a social media network that more than 20 million Brazilians had long used to debate politics, sports and pop culture.
From the beginning of the impasse, it was clear which of the men had more leverage. Other justices lined up behind Moraes’s decision. Right-wing figures in Brazil tried to mobilize around the issue of censorship, but their complaints didn’t seem to resonate beyond their bubbles. In a country awash in social media platforms, many had already stopped using X by the time of its suspension. And those still on the network started flocking to other platforms.
It was clear Brazil could live without X.
But it wasn’t clear X could live without Brazil.
Then, last week, Brazilian officials accused the network of trying to circumvent the suspension. The company rerouted its internet traffic using the third-party security firm Cloudflare, enabling a new path to its site by bypassing the virtual blockade. Brazilians swarmed back onto the site.
X said the misdirection had been unintentional, and the digital route was closed by Wednesday night. Brazilian officials accused the company of purposefully countervailing a judicial order.
“There is no doubt that the platform, X, once again, intends to disrespect the Brazilian judiciary,” Moraes said. Accusing X of “willful, illicit and persistent recalcitrance,” he fined the company nearly $1 million.
Within days, the company had reassigned attorney Villa Nova as its legal representative in the country.
The capitulation by Musk was met by relief by many in Brazil. The decision to suspend X was seen by many here as extreme. But in a country deeply protective of its sovereignty and sensitive to foreign meddling, many also felt Musk had gone too far in attacking Brazil’s highest court.
“X didn’t back down because of reason, but because it bowed to pressure,” the editorial board of the newspaper O Globo said Saturday. “The suspension of the platform, while necessary to assure the sovereignty of the country, should not go on for too long.”