Brazilian Supreme Court panel upholds judge’s decision to block X nationwide

A Brazilian Supreme Court panel has upheld the decision of one of its justices to block billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X nationwide, according to the court’s website.

The broader support among justices deals a blow to Mr Musk and his supporters who have sought to characterise Justice Alexandre de Moraes as a renegade and authoritarian censor of political speech.

The panel is comprised of five of the full bench’s 11 justices, including Judge de Moraes, who last Friday ordered the platform blocked for having failed to name a local legal representative, as required by law.

X will remain blocked until it complies with his orders and pays outstanding fines that as of last week exceeded three million dollars (£2.28 million), according to his decision.

Judge de Moraes also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais (£6,760) for people or companies using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X.

Some legal experts questioned the grounds for that decision and how it would be enforced, including Brazil’s bar association, which said it would request that the Supreme Court review that provision.

But the majority of the panel on Monday upheld both the block and VPN fine – with one justice opposing the latter, unless users are shown to be using X to commit crimes.

Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, with tens of millions of users.

Its block marked a dramatic escalation in a months-long feud between Mr Musk and Judge de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

“He violated the constitution of Brazil repeatedly and egregiously, after swearing an oath to protect it,” Mr Musk wrote of Judge de Moraes in the hours before the vote.

He also announced on Sunday the creation of an X account to publish the justice’s decisions that he said would provide evidence of his claims.

Judge de Moraes’ decision to quickly remit his order for panel approval served to obtain “collective, more institutional support that attempts to depersonalise the decision”, Conrado Hubner, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sao Paulo, told The Associated Press.

It is standard for the rapporteur to remit a decision to a five-justice panel in such cases, Prof Hubner said.

In exceptional cases considered controversial, the justice has the discretion to send it to the full bench for evaluation.

Had Judge de Moraes done the latter, two justices who have questioned his decisions in the past – and were appointed by former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro – would have had the opportunity to object or hinder the vote’s advance.