X/Twitter Ban Upheld in Brazil as Musk Calls Judge 'Evil Tyrant' (2024)

Elon Musk has reacted angrily to a decision of Brazil’s Supreme Court to uphold the country’s suspension of X, formerly Twitter.

The court’s five judges ruled unanimously against the social media service, with the company choosing not to appoint a legal representative in Brazil to argue its case.

Musk took to his own platform to hurl insults at the judges – particularly Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes – as well as posts promoting freedom of speech, and recommending that Brazilians use a VPN to access X despite the fact that they could be heavily fined for doing so.

Brazilian Ban Upheld by Court

The official website for the Federal Supreme Court confirmed the decision on Monday, saying that the previous week’s suspension of the X platform throughout the country would be upheld.

The court’s original decision was made with immediate effect on Friday, pending the appointment by X of a legal representative in the country. That appointment has yet to be made.

X is being investigated in Brazil in connection with the alleged practice of the crimes of obstruction of justice, criminal organization and incitement to crime.

“Economic power and the size of the bank account do not give rise to strange immunity from jurisdiction.” – Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino (translated from the original Portuguese).

With court orders and fines still outstanding, the ban is likely to be upheld until X complies with the court-imposed measures.

App Removal and VPN Use

The Supreme Court has also made an order of Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency to take all necessary measures to uphold the ban, and told Apple and Google to block the use of the X app on iOS and Android devices respectively.

Additionally, it has said that anybody attempting to get around the ban and continue communicating via X – citing the example of VPN (virtual private network) use – would be deemed to be defrauding the court and subject to a R$50,000 daily fine, roughly US$9,000.

Musk had previously promoted the use of free VPNs to get around the ban, before realizing that the decision to fine anybody using them had also been upheld in the decision on Monday.

This step has only added to Musk’s chagrin, using his X channel to brand de Moraes “a very evil dictator” for the so-called ‘banning’ of VPNs.

Elon’s Exasperation

Musk has been unsurprisingly vocal of his criticism of the Supreme Court’s decision, finding space on his X feed between promoting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and announcing the Beta version of X TV to vent his frustrations.

Supreme Justice de Moraes is the most regular target of the world’s richest person’s ire. In one post, Musk says that the judge “deserves prison for his crimes”, while another says “This evil tyrant is a disgrace to judges (sic) judges robes”.

This evil tyrant is a disgrace to judges robes https://t.co/U4LW2mjsTL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 3, 2024

He also reposted a call for an upcoming Independence Day (September 7th) march ‘protesting judicial overreach and defending free speech’ with thirteen Brazilian flag emojis.