Brazilian court unblocks X after company pays fines

We reported in August that the social network X was banned in Brazil following a dispute between Elon Musk and the Brazilian Supreme Court. More than a month later, the Musk-owned company has backtracked and decided to comply with the Brazilian court, which has just ruled that X can be unblocked in the country.

X back in Brazil after Supreme Court ban

For context, major social platforms like X are regulated by a Brazilian law, which states that these platforms are responsible for the content shared by their users. However, since Elon Musk acquired X in 2022, he has explicitly criticized the Brazilian court’s requests to take down some accounts accused of spreading misinformation and fake news.

Earlier this year, Musk decided to close the X office in Brazil and laid off all the employees of the branch in the country. However, Brazilian law also demands that big foreign companies operating in the country must have a legal representative in Brazil.

Since Musk’s company had left the country and wasn’t complying with the court’s requests, it was ruled that X would be banned in Brazil – which happened on August 30. X had more than 20 million active users in Brazil, so losing them resulted in a significant negative impact for the platform.

Although Musk initially mocked the Brazilian court’s decision, the company later decided to comply with the requests. X paid a fine of R$28.6 million (around US$5 million) and agreed to suspend the accounts requested by the Brazilian government. Ironically, X even sent the money to pay the fines to the wrong bank account during the process.

Although the Brazilian Supreme Court first ruled that Apple and Google should remove the X app from the App Store and Google Play, the court softened its decision and the app remained available to Brazilians (although it only works with a VPN). However, using it during the ban could result in a $10,000 fine.

Although the situation has been settled in Brazil, X’s controversial policies have also been frowned upon in Europe, with the EU also considering imposing sanctions on X.

Via NPR.

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