Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA (Reuters) – The standoff between Elon Musk and Brazil escalated on Sunday when a Supreme Court judge opened an investigation into the billionaire after Musk said he would reactivate social media accounts X that the judge had ordered blocked.
Musk, the owner of X and a self-proclaimed free speech advocate, challenged Judge Alexandre de Moraes’ decision ordering the blocking of certain accounts. He said X, formerly known as Twitter, would lift all restrictions because they were unconstitutional and called on Moraes to resign.
Neither Musk, X nor Brazilian authorities have disclosed which social media accounts were ordered blocked. X first issued the lockdown order on Saturday, but it was not immediately clear when the order was issued.
Moraes is investigating the activities of “digital militias” accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the rule of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, and is also leading an investigation into an alleged coup attempt by Bolsonaro.
Musk, in a Saturday evening post X, accused Moraes of “brazenly and repeatedly” betraying the constitution and people of Brazil.
“This judge imposed huge fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil,” he wrote in his message.
“As a result, we will likely lose all revenue in Brazil and be forced to close our office there. But principles are more important than profit.”
The billionaire promised to legally challenge the order to block X accounts where possible.
Moraes responded Sunday by adding Musk to an investigation he is leading into fake news on social media and launching an investigation into what he called obstruction of justice.
In his decision, Moraes stated: “X must refrain from disobeying any court order already issued, including carrying out any reactivation of a profile that has been blocked by this Supreme Court.”
If X does not comply with the order to block certain accounts, the company will be fined 100,000 reais ($19,740) per day, the judge said in a statement released to the media.
The left-wing government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed support for Moraes, while Solicitor General Jorge Messias criticized Musk and called for regulation of social media to prevent foreign platforms from violating Brazilian laws.
“We cannot live in a society where billionaires living abroad control social media and put themselves in positions that violate the rule of law by disobeying court orders and threatening our authorities,” Messias said in a post on X.
Last year, Moraes also ordered an investigation into executives at social messaging platform Telegram and Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:) who led a campaign to criticize a proposed Internet regulation bill. The bill would place the responsibility for finding and reporting illegal material on internet companies, search engines and social messaging services, rather than on a court decision. Failure to do so will also result in hefty fines.
(This story has been updated to show “at” rather than “at” in the headline)