Brazil bans Musk's X for misinformation

Brazil has banned X, which used to be Twitter because it missed a deadline set by a Supreme Court judge to name a new legal agent in the country.

Alexandre de Moraes said the social media site should be "immediately and completely suspended" until it follows all court orders and pays all fines.

At the start of the fight in April, a judge shut down dozens of X accounts for supposedly sharing false information.

After the ruling, Elon Musk, the owner of X, said, "Free speech is the foundation of democracy, and a fake judge in Brazil who wasn't elected is destroying it for political reasons."

At least 10% of the country's 200 million people are said to use the social media network.

Some users said they could no longer get to the site by Saturday morning.

It shut down its office in Brazil earlier this month, saying that its agent had been told she would be arrested if she didn't follow orders called "censorship," which was against Brazilian law.

Justice Moraes said that X accounts, many of which were fans of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro and were accused of sharing false information, should be stopped while being looked into.

He said the company's lawyers would be responsible if any accounts were active again.

Fines have been warned against X for not following this order. The company and Mr. Musk have said that the judge is too left-wing, which Brazil's critics have also said.

The tech billionaire has been involved in many fights lately. He has a history of arguing with the EU over how to regulate X, and earlier this month, he got into a verbal battle with a fight with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Per Reuters, the head of Brazil's telecoms office, which is in charge of shutting down the platform, said that he is "proceeding with the compliance" to do so.

Judge Moraes has given Apple, Google, and other companies five days to remove X from their app stores and prevent users from using it on iOS and Android devices.

He also said that businesses or people who use VPNs (virtual private networks) to get to the platform could be fined R$50,000 (£6,700).

The judge's order says that X can only return to Brazil once they choose a new lawyer and pay a fine for breaking Brazilian law.

In a recent post from one of its public accounts, X said it would not do what was asked of it.

"Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents," it said.

"What is important is that Judge de Moraes wants us to break Brazil's laws." That's not something we will do."

At the same time, Mr. Musk's satellite internet company, Starlink, 's bank accounts were frozen in Brazil after the country's Supreme Court issued an order.

In response, Starlink wrote on X that the "order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied - unconstitutionally - against X."

Justice Moraes became well-known after he decided to limit the use of social media in the country.

He is also investigating Mr. Bolsonaro and his followers for possible involvement in a failed coup on January 8, 2018.

X is one of many social media companies in Brazil to face problems from the government.

The Telegram company was partially banned last year because it wouldn't comply with requests to block certaspecifics.

Meta's messaging app WhatsApp was also temporarily shut down in 2015 and 2016 for refusing to give police users the requested data.