A questionable Brazilian court ruling implies an increasing lack of freedom of speech in the South American nation.

The Brazilian ban of the social media app “X” formally known as Twitter, was imposed by the five judge panel when the company failed to meet the court’s deadline.

Court Imposed Deadline

The court imposed deadline which was missed by the social media company required the organization to name a legal representative dedicated to the country.

After failing to present a X representative for Brazil the supreme court upheld a nation wide ban on the use of the app.

Elon Musk who purchased the social media app in 2022, renamed it from Twitter to X has stated the mov by the Brazil is meant to censorship

Strike Fear into Brazilians

The government of Brazil has vowed to uphold the ban, by imposing daily fines on companies or individuals who subvert the law to access the site.

Fines as high as $9000 dollars per day will be used to strike fear into Brazilians who opt to access the social media platform using a VPN (virtual private network).

Ironically when X was known as Twitter and owned by liberal leaning management there was never a question regarding the platform’s rules regarding misinformation or hate speech.

Withdraw Support

Only after Musk took over the platform and vowed to keep the open speech nature of the application, did international governments and global advertisers begin to withdraw support.

Approximately 20% of Brazilians use the X social media app out of over 215 million people living in the country.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated to American news media that he was satisfied with the outcome.

Although the relationship between the Brazilian government and Brazilian courts should be held at arm’s length there is some speculation one influences the other.

Unpaid Fines for Failure to Comply

Starlink which is also owned by Musk and is a subsidiary of his SpaceX company is a satellite internet provider for the south American nation confirmed it will not comply with the ban.

Starlink’s Brazilian bank account were frozen by court order as result of unpaid fines for failure to comply with federal regulations which were deemed as intrusive measures.

Starlink has confirmed it will not ban the social media app until its bank account were unfrozen, resulting in the standoff.

Democracy, freedom of speech, and the rule of law in South America has been question as of late with the presume stolen election of neighbouring Venezuela.

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