Brazil’s Supreme Court announced on Friday that social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, must pay more than $5 million in outstanding fines, including a newly imposed penalty, before it can resume operations in the country, according to a court document.
Earlier this week, the Elon Musk-owned company informed the court that it had complied with orders to curb the spread of misinformation and requested that the ban on the platform be lifted. However, Judge Alexandre de Moraes ruled on Friday that X and its Brazilian legal representative still need to settle fines amounting to 18.3 million reais ($3.4 million) previously imposed by the court.
In his ruling, Judge Moraes indicated that the court could use frozen funds from X and Musk’s other company, Starlink, in Brazil to cover the fines.
However, for this to happen, Starlink would need to drop its appeal against the freezing of those assets. Additionally, Moraes issued a new fine of 10 million reais ($1.8 million) due to a brief period last week when X was accessible to some users in Brazil despite the ban.
X did not immediately respond to requests for comment. According to a source close to the company, X is likely to pay the existing fines but may challenge the newly imposed 10 million reais penalty, as reported by Reuters.
X has been suspended in Brazil since late August after Judge Moraes ruled that the platform had failed to comply with orders to combat hate speech and to appoint a local legal representative. Musk, who previously condemned the orders as “censorship” and referred to Moraes as a “dictator,” began to reverse his stance last week when X’s legal team confirmed it had appointed a local representative and would adhere to the court’s demands.
In his latest decision, Moraes acknowledged that X had now complied by blocking the required accounts and appointing a legal representative in Brazil.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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