Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Elon Musk has backed down and complied with a Brazilian judge’s orders that he appoint a legal representative for X, according to court documents, paving the way for the restoration of the social media site in the country following a weeks-long ban.
X was banned in Brazil late last month amid an escalating feud between the billionaire and Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who had demanded the site remove accounts linked to far-right individuals and groups.
Musk refused to do so and shuttered X’s office in the Latin American country. He then ignored a court deadline to appoint a legal representative to the company — a requirement under the country’s civil code — which led Moraes to ban the platform.
Moraes — a controversial figure who has led a years-long crackdown on misinformation and extremist content online — also froze the bank accounts of both X and Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink, claiming that the companies were part of the same “economic unit”.
Starlink is a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, in which Musk owns about 40 per cent of the stock but commands 79 per cent of voting rights.
On Saturday the stand-off between the billionaire and the judge appeared to be reaching a conclusion after lawyers for X announced the company had appointed an official legal representative. Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição previously served in the role before Musk shuttered the company’s São Paulo office.
Multiple media outlets also reported that X had agreed to remove the controversial accounts that were at the centre of the feud between the two men.
X and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
The developments represent a climbdown for Musk, who has been idolised by sections of the Brazilian right for publicly taking on Moraes.
The billionaire repeatedly mocked the judge on social media, accusing him of being a dictator and posting mocked-up photos of him in prison.
“One day this picture of you in prison will be real. Mark my words,” Musk posted at one point.
Moraes, however, won the backing of powerful political figures, including the rest of the Supreme Court bench and leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“The Brazilian justice system may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s far-right anything-goes attitude just because he is rich,” Lula said after the ban was announced.
Prior to the ban, X had some 20mn users in Brazil and was the ninth most popular social media platform, far behind Instagram and Facebook. In the wake of Moraes’s order, millions of Brazilians began using Bluesky, a similar microblogging site.
On Saturday X remained blocked in Brazil pending information requests from Moraes and the calculation of outstanding fines.
Additional reporting by Beatriz Langella and Hannah Murphy
Read the full article here
