X is back in Brazil

After a month-long ban, X is live again in Brazil today. The platform had been suspended since late August following a dispute with the country's Supreme Court in which X rejected a court order to remove certain right-wing extremist accounts and content that the court said violated Brazilian law. After weeks of noncompliance, Elon Musk appears to have relented.

Alexandre, justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil, approved the return of

X issued a statement on its platform saying it was “proud to return to Brazil.” “Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform has been of utmost importance throughout the process,” the statement said. “We will continue to defend freedom of expression to the fullest extent of the law wherever we operate.”

“I think what he saw in the end was that he had no choice,” says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher at Brazil’s National Institute of Science and Technology who studies Brazil’s far right. “And besides, people in Brazil just started not caring.”

Shortly after Musk took over the former Twitter in October 2022, the company received a consent decree from the Brazilian court threatening a ban if it did not follow through on its commitments to curb election-related misinformation and disinformation during the country's presidential election. Offs. According to employees who spoke to WIRED at the time, trust and security staff were able to convince Musk to maintain Twitter's policies and guardrails. But less than two weeks later, Musk laid off more than half of the company, including most of the company's trust and security staff.

Musk's “free speech absolutism” also led the company to reinstate previously suspended accounts. At the same time, the company rolled back moderation, which allowed misinformation and hate speech to spread on the platform.

In April, de Moraes sent the company instructions to delete a select group of accounts and content that the court said were spreading disinformation about the country's electoral system. (In 2023, after former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro lost the election, his supporters stormed the Brazilian parliament.)

Musk rejected the court orders and refused to remove the content. On August 19, X announced that it was closing its offices in Brazil and would no longer have a representative in the country. Without naming anyone who corresponds with the government – and is legally responsible for the company's decisions – Moraes ordered the platform blocked in Brazil. He also took aim at Musk's other company, Starlink, saying it was part of the same “economic group” and fined the company $2 million after Musk initially said Starlink would not block X.

Musk eventually relented and Starlink complied with the court order. Meanwhile, in Brazil, Last week, the company said it had named a legal representative in the country and was submitting re-awarding documents online. After X paid $5 million in fines imposed by the courts, the company was allowed to resume operations. The timing is crucial; Brazil will host several important local elections in October.

“I think this is a victory for the court,” said Ivar Hartmann, associate professor of law at the Insper Institute of Education and Research in São Paulo. “In the future, it will be easier for the Supreme Court to block Starlink accounts if X misbehaves again.”

But Hartmann says he doesn't see any further problems as long as the company abides by the law by continuing to have a legal representative and complying with court orders. At least not for Musk. “The likelihood that (the legal representative) will have an arrest warrant against him at some point is not zero. It’s a possibility,” he says. “And that’s why I hope they get a lot of money.”

Santos says she suspects Starlink will be at least somewhat isolated, even if “It's much easier to live without X than with Starlink in Brazil,” Santos says.