(LifeSiteNews) — X users in Brazil will once again be able to access their accounts following the company’s decision to comply with the demands of left-wing Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who owner Elon Musk previously called a “dictator.”
Moraes had ordered X to be banned on August 30 via a 51-page decision after the company’s repeated refusal to comply with previous demands. X announced just weeks before that it was shutting down its offices in the country to protect staffers from de Moraes’ tyrannical decrees.
Following the 2022 ouster of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was a strong ally of Donald Trump, Moraes has essentially been ruling the country by fiat. Socialist president Lula de Silva, 78, has likewise been re-positioning it globally away from the West and towards China and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) alliance.
News of Moraes’ decision to unblock the company came Tuesday this week in a statement from the Supreme Court that said X had paid fines totaling $5.1 million. X also agreed to ban certain accounts the government has deemed to have “disseminated false information.” It also said it will appoint a local representative in the country.
The backtracking by X has not been mentioned by Musk, who repeatedly threatened to release damming information on Moraes, who has justified his oppressive action by claiming he is “defending democracy.”
We willl begin publishing the long list of @Alexandre’s crimes, along with the specific Brazilian laws that he broke tomorrow.
Obviously, he does not need to abide by US law, but he does need to abide by his own country’s laws.
He is a dictator and a fraud, not a justice. https://t.co/m93B1r0v98
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2024
The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries https://t.co/VgYPRJMXJv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2024
X’s Global Government Affairs account did issue a statement, however, though it was criticized strongly by users for “caving in” and “bending the knee” to an oppressive regime.
“X is proud to return to Brazil. Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate,” it said.
X is proud to return to Brazil. Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.
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O…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) October 8, 2024
Multiple mainstream media outlets have reported that after X was banned in August, citizens have signed up for accounts on sites Bluesky and Meta Threads, with Bluesky allegedly having over 10 million users. X was estimated to have had between 20 and 40 million active users in the country.
Investigative journalist and author Michael Shellenberger has said that the censorship efforts by Moraes are “an attack on the democratic process.” He has since reported that a group of U.S. Senators & Congressmen are demanding that the Biden administration investigate the U.S. government’s potential involvement in backing the censorship.