Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered X to pay just over $5 million in fines, including a new fine of nearly $2 million, before the country finally lifts its ban on the platform.
“X” notified the Brazilian government earlier this week that it is now complying with the court order. That's because owner Elon Musk has quietly escalated his campaign against what he sees as censorship. According to reports.
The South American country threatened to ban the app over a number of accounts it accused of promoting lies and hate speech. In addition to the fine, Musk agreed to ban nine accounts.
Of the $5 million requested by the Brazilian government, $3.4 million comes from previously ordered pending fines and $1.8 million comes from new charges brought by the website. It briefly became available to some Brazilians last week..
An update to the communications network on Wednesday, September 18, allowed some of Brazil's 21.5 million users to regain access to the platform for just a few hours. “X” said the act was “inadvertent” and the service was immediately suspended.
Sources close to X told Reuters the tech giant is likely to pay the full fine to resolve the dispute.
X said it banned nine accounts that were under investigation for hate speech and misinformation to comply with the court's initial order.
Musk, who calls himself a free speech fighter, resisted the order for nearly five months until late August, when “X” was completely banned in the South American country.
His fight against perceived threats to free speech includes a meme campaign against Judge Alexandre de Moraes, whom Elon regularly mocked for “X” in the weeks leading up to the ban and in the weeks after. was included.
The same judge later froze one of Musk's Starlink bank accounts, saying it was to pay the fine originally imposed on “X.” This led to Musk calling the judge a “dictator,” and the conflict escalated and is now boiling over.
Starlink is appealing the decision to freeze the account, but the court has asked Musk to withdraw the appeal as part of the pending reinstatement of “X.”
Officials close to Mr. Musk believe the issue will be resolved within days, allowing the platform's sixth-largest user base to regain access to the service.
