X Seeks Brazil to Lift Ban After Acting on Judge's Orders

Elon Musk's social media site X has complied with Judge Alexandre de Moraes' orders and requested its service be reestablished in Brazil, two sources said Thursday.

X complied with orders to block certain accounts from the platform, name an official legal representative in Brazil, and pay fines imposed for not complying with earlier court orders, Musk's attorneys said in a petition filed Thursday, according to the sources, who are familiar with the document. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

On Sept. 21, de Moraes ordered the platform to submit additional documentation about its legal representative for court review, which the sources said has been done.

X was blocked on Aug. 30 in the highly online country of 213 million people, where it was one of the platform's markets, with more than 20 million users. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after sparring with Musk for months over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

The company said at the time that de Moraes' efforts to block certain accounts were illegal moves to censor "political opponents" and that it would not comply. Musk called the judge an enemy of free speech and a criminal. But de Moraes' decisions have been repeatedly upheld by his peers – including his nationwide block of X.

In a twist, X's new representative is the same person who held the position before X shuttered its office in Brazil, according to the company's public filing with the Sao Paulo commercial registry. That happened after de Moraes threatened to arrest the person, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição, if X did not comply with orders to block accounts.

In an apparent effort to avoid her getting blamed for potential violations of Brazilian law – and risk arrest – a clause has been written into the representation agreement that any action on the part of X that will result in obligations for her requires prior instruction in writing from the company, according to the company's filing at the registry.

Associated Press emails and calls to her office were not returned. The Supreme Court's press office has not confirmed receipt of X's documents, and X did not immediately respond to a request from the AP.

It's still early to know whether the feud between X and Brazil's top court is over, said ⁠Bruna Santos, a lawyer and global campaigns manager at nonprofit Digital Action. However, the platform's decision to appoint a representative indicates the company has entered "a state of good-faith cooperation with Brazilian authorities."

And the fact that Brazilian users migrated in droves to rival platforms BlueSky and Threads might have played into X's decision, Santos added.

"There must be a genuine concern on the platform that they are losing users, the core users from the early Twitter days, or the loyal ones, who stick around for good," she said.