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A top judge in Brazil has ordered the blocking of Elon Musk’s company Starlink’s financial accounts in the country due to ongoing legal disputes.

Let’s bring you up to speed: Elon Musk’s platform, X (formerly Twitter), is in an ongoing conflict with Brazil’s Supreme Court, particularly Justice Alexandre de Moraes, over content removal orders targeting “misinformation and disinformation.” X recently announced it would close its operations and lay off staff in Brazil, citing “illegal censorship orders” from Judge de Moraes. The platform also claimed that de Moraes secretly threatened one of its legal representatives with arrest if they didn’t comply with removal demands. This led to X shutting down its offices in the country and now having no legal representative.

What’s going on now: Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the blocking of Starlink’s financial accounts due to its connection with Elon Musk’s platform, X, citing their lack of legal representation in Brazil. This absence has prevented the enforcement of court orders on content moderation.  

A potential block of X: In addition to targeting Starlink, some warn that this could be the precursor to a broader move that might see X being blocked in Brazil entirely. According to X, approximately 40 million Brazilians, including key government officials, rely on the platform for communication, news, and public discourse.

What X & Musk are saying: In a statement, X said, “We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that. In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency. Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders. To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your 

freedom of speech.” Elon Musk added that Judge Moraes was “an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge.”