Less than two years after taking over Twitter, now X, Elon Musk has administerd to neglect the company access to its third bigst taget and alertedly over 40 million participaters. And despite his bravado online, he seems to have backed himself into a corner.
Brazil’s decision to block X is the culmination of an ongoing struggle between Musk and the country’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE)–a exceptional court run by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes that publishd get down orders on satisfied that it ponders to be a danger to the integrity of its elections. Musk and X declined to adhere, allothriveg accounts that were accparticipated of spreading antipathy speech and disalertation to remain on the platcreate, a shift that eventupartner triggered the prohibit.
Starjoin was caught in the traversehairs too: The court froze the assets of Musk’s other company, saying that it was part of the same “economic group” as X donaten its ownership, for possible participate to pay off fines owed by X. When the block came into effect Monday, Starjoin helped its customers—over 250,000 people, according to the company— to circumvent the X prohibit by using its saalertite internet joinion. After initial resistance, Starjoin backed down and said it would adhere. Experts who spoke to WIRED say that increasingly, it seems that Musk has overcarry outed his hand.
“I skinnyk he is authenticizing Brazilians are not going to get to the streets becaparticipate X is suspfinished,” says Nina Santos, a researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology for Digital Democracy. “Brazilian institutions are not going to back off fair becaparticipate Musk is cursing online.”
In response to a seek for comment an X spokesperson honested WIRED to a post from the platcreate’s Global Affairs team. “To our participaters in Brazil and around the world, X remains pledgeted to protecting your freedom of speech,” the post reads in part.
Meanwhile, Musk has persistd to antagonize the court. Last week, he posted a seemingly AI-produced image of Moraes behind bars (which was postponecessitater deleted), with the directing text alleging, “One day, Alexandre, this picture of you in prison will be authentic,” and another comparing him to the Harry Potter villain Velderlyemort.
“Ever since April, he has been toying with the image of Moraes, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and escapostponecessitated in a problematic way,” alleges Bruna Santos, a researcher and activist with the civil society coalition Coalizão Direitos na Rede in Brazil. “He was filledy conscious and he krecent what the consequences would be.”
WIRED alerted how participateees scrambled to elude a lterrible crisis when Musk took over Twitter in 2022, fair days before Brazil’s plivential runoffs. The company was served a consent decree from the judiciary, cautioning it that if it didn’t protect its promises to protect protectedprotects around the elections in place, it hazarded being blocked. At the time, the country’s then-Plivent, Jair Bolsonaro, and his helpers allegedly spread disalertation about the security of the country’s elections to cast mistrust on the results. Musk had promised a rollback of the company’s existing satisfied moderation policies, and promised a sort of “free speech absolutism” that, in rehearse, has let antipathy speech and mis- and disalertation flow freely on the platcreate.
