In the latest in a long string of calamities, cringe moments, and baffling upsets that have marked Elon Musk’s stewardship of the platform formerly known as Twitter, a Brazilian judge has given the site 24 hours to appoint a legal representative in the country or have its local operations shut down completely (via AP).
The judge is Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, and Musk has clashed with him before—even mocking him as “Brazil’s Darth Vader” in a tweet earlier this year. Back in April, Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk over the spread of fake news and a separate probe focused on obstruction, incitement, and criminal organisation.
In particular, the court took issue with Musk’s reinstatement of various far-right Twitter accounts. Moraes has gone after “digital militias” of far-right activists that have been accused of inciting violence against Supreme Court justices and spreading misinformation within Brazil, and that attempted to overturn the election of Brazilian president Lula Ignacio da Silva in 2022. Silva, known familiarly as Lula, defeated Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, and supporters of the former president attacked the Brazilian Congress in 2023.
So the court is none too pleased with Musk’s self-described “free speech absolutism” that seems to overwhelmingly favour far-right figureheads. Since Musk became owner of the social media platform, Twitter has seen increases in hate speech and reinstated figures like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and former president Donald Trump while other accounts—including journalists critical of Musk—have found themselves inexplicably suspended. Musk also reportedly fired Twitter’s Brazilian election misinformation team, adding fuel to the fire of his fracas with Moraes.
Meanwhile, Twitter has rankled at orders from the court to ban prominent Bolsonaristas and others on the extreme right. Things seemed to come to a head earlier this month, when Twitter went to the mattresses with a post decrying Moraes’ “censorship orders,” and stating that “Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply.” The company ordered the closure of its Brazilian operations “effective immediately,” as a result, though Twitter as a service remained accessible to Brazilian users.
But that might not last. As of last night, August 28, Moraes gave Twitter 24 hours to appoint a new legal representative “under penalty of the immediate suspension of the activities of the social network ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).” Perhaps in a gesture intended to thumb its nose at Musk, the court posted the summons on Twitter and tagged him directly.
It seems unlikely Twitter will comply. Since the court order was issued, Musk has tweeted that Moraes has “repeatedly broken the laws he has sworn to uphold,” and posted that “eyes are the window to the soul” in response to one of his supporters asking why Moraes’ eyes “look evil”.
Aside from that, the order hasn’t outwardly fazed him, and he has occupied much of the last day or so tweeting in his usual fashion about the doom that awaits America should it elect Kamala Harris, the “woke mind virus,” and tweeting AI-generated images at Musk-critic and author Steven King. We’ll see what happens when Twitter’s time limit runs out tonight, but for now: Game devs in Brazil are hurriedly tweeting about the various other social media platforms you can find them on.
