A legal fight with a Brazilian judge over the platform's rights and responsibilities to combat disinformation caused this. On Saturday, X Twitter accused the judge of 'censorship'. They posted what the company said were documents of the latest orders to 'expose his actions'.
‘Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders, and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,` X Twitter global government affairs team declared.
The move ends a legal battle with Moraes, the Brazilian Supreme Court Judge. He is trying to fight online disinformation, including Elon Musk X. At the start of the year, Moraes got Elon Musk X to block some accounts accused of spreading disinformation and hate messages. This blocking includes some supporters of Brazil's former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Elon Musk news said it was a 'difficult' decision to close the Brazil office, 'but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.'
On Saturday, Elon Musk X said Moraes secretly intimidated a legal representative in Brazil by arresting them for not removing some content from their platform. The platform makes public pictures of a document signed by Moraes that declares a daily fine of 20,000 Reais ($3,653). Also, an arrest decree would be imposed against X Twitter representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if they didn’t follow the orders from Moraes.
In his first orders to Elon Musk Twitter, Moraes wrote that 'social media networks are not a lawless land'. Elon Musk news says the judge accused him of a 'disinformation campaign' against the court. The impasse was the latest test in the global discussion of free speech vs. fake news. In Latin America's largest democracy, it is a crime to attack people or democracy using disinformation.
Elon Musk news said Saturday that Moraes 'actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make — democracy or Alexandre de Moraes'. Also, in April, the lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court that 'operational faults' allowed blocked users to stay active on the platform. This action follows Moraes asking Elon Musk X to explain why they hadn’t completely complied with his decisions.