autotranslated:
Faced with the lack of a legal representative of the social network X in Brazil, the minister of the Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes blocked accounts of the company Starlink Holding, which also belongs to billionaire Elon Musk – which provoked a new reaction from the businessman (read more below)
Last week, Moraes considered the existence of a “de facto economic group” under Musk and, on August 18, ordered the blocking of all the financial values of this group in Brazil, to guarantee the payment of fines imposed by the Brazilian Justice against Rede X.
According to aides to the office of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the other company under Elon Musk in the country – in addition to the X – is precisely Starlink, which operates in Brazil in the sale of internet services by satellite, especially in the North region.
What Starlink is and how does it work
Elon Musk compares Alexandre de Moraes to movie villains
All Starlink leaders in Brazil have already been notified and subpoenaed to also answer for the amounts due to the Brazilian Justice by X.
After the blockade of the accounts, the billionaire returned to criticize Alexandre de Moraes - whom, on Wednesday (28), compared to villains of films (see video above).
In a publication in X on Thursday (29), Musk called the minister "dictator" and said that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is conniving with him.
“The tyrant Alexandre [de Moraes] is the dictator of Brazil. Lula is his dog,” Musk wrote in a free translation.
The businessman Elon Musk decided, according to announced on the 17th, to close the X office in Brazil.
The reason is the fact that the company does not agree with the fines imposed by the Supreme Court or with the determination of withdrawal of content published by users on the social network that confront the Democratic State of Law and Brazilian legislation.
Since then, Minister Alexandre de Moraes has gone on to request the businessman to establish a legal representative to officially answer for the acts of the platform. O processo de Elon Musk contra megaempresas por suposto 'boicote' ao X — Foto: Getty Images
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against mega-companies for alleged ‘boicote’ to X — Photo: Getty Images
The subpoena in post
On Wednesday (28), Moraes gave 24 hours so that the social network again has a legal representative in the country, under penalty of suspension of service.
The decision was released overnight, in a post on the STF’s profile on X, in response to the company’s post made on August 17 about the closure of the office. On that occasion, in addition to announcing the closure of the office and the withdrawal of its representative from the country, the platform informed that the network would continue to be used in the country.
My problem here is way more that Musk accepts roughly 80% of censorship requests out of totalitarian countries like Turkey, so his claim to be a "free speech absolutist" of some sort is just objectively false; and while government censorship should always be questioned, this is clearly hypocrisy and not actually meant to promote free speech.