The Brazilian court ordered the lifting of the blocking of bank accounts and other assets in the country of X (formerly Twitter), after the social network agreed to pay 4.76 million euros in fines.
The decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), on Tuesday, paves the way for the reactivation of the social network in Brazil, where it has been suspended since August 31 for refusing to eliminate profiles of those suspected of spreading fake news.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes asked the Central Bank of Brazil to “unfreeze” the social network’s bank accounts and financial assets, so that the company can “receive international transfers” and “immediately pay the indicated fines”.
Moraes had frozen the finances of American billionaire Elon Musk’s social network in Brazil at the end of August, shortly before access to the platform was blocked in the country.
According to the ruling, the social network informed the STF that it would pay 28.6 million reais (4.76 million euros), corresponding to three cumulative fines, for not having respected court decisions and for having circumvented the access block. .
Before the suspension, around 22 million people used the social network in Brazil, the largest market in Latin America. Many Brazilians regained access on September 18, after a change in X’s IP.
The social network explained that it changed providers to provide a better service to Latin American users, but the STF rejected the explanation. Alexandre de Moraes fined the company five million reais per day (around 800 thousand euros) for trying to circumvent the blockade. A day later, the social network appointed a new legal representative in Brazil, one of the STF’s requirements to unblock access to the social network in the country.
In August, AX announced the closure of its office in Brazil and said it would not comply with STF orders to eliminate certain profiles of people suspected of spreading false news, as it considered them illegal.
Elon Musk criticized Alexandre de Moraes, responsible for the investigation, accusing him of being a “dictator in a toga”, and supported calls from the Brazilian far right linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro to remove him.
After the blockade, the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, asked the social network to comply with the STF’s decisions and stated that all companies with a presence in the country must comply with the laws.
Alexandre de Moraes also imposed a fine of eight thousand euros on anyone who uses a virtual private network, known as VPN, the acronym in English, or another location hiding service to access X. So far, there have been no reports of the imposition of any fine.
