X Complies With Brazil Judge's Demands

The Brazilian Supreme Court's Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday authorized the restoration of social media platform X´s service in Brazil, over a month after its nationwide shutdown, according to a statement posted on the court's website.

• Elon Musk's X was blocked on Aug. 30 in the highly online country of 213 million people—and one of X's biggest markets, with estimates of its user base ranging from 20 to 40 million. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after a monthslong dispute with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts, and misinformation, the AP reports. Musk had disparaged de Moraes, calling him an authoritarian and a censor, despite the fact his rulings, including X's nationwide suspension, were repeatedly upheld by his peers.

• Despite Musk's public bravado, X ultimately complied with all of de Moraes' demands. They included blocking certain accounts from the platform, paying outstanding fines, and naming a legal representative in the country. Failure to do the latter had triggered the suspension.
• Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a local legal representative to receive notifications of court decisions and swiftly take any requisite action—particularly, in X's case, the takedown of accounts. Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição was named X's legal representative in April and resigned four months later, when X shuttered what was left of its office in Brazil. In a twist, the company named her to the same job on Sep. 20, according to a public filing with the Sao Paulo commercial registry. Conceição works for BR4Business, a business services firm.
• There is nothing illegal or suspect about using a company like BR4Business for legal representation, but it shows that X is doing the bare minimum to operate in the country, says Fabio de Sa e Silva, a lawyer and associate professor of International and Brazilian Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "It doesn't demonstrate an intention to truly engage with the country," Silva says.

• Musk's decision to reverse course in Brazil after publicly criticizing de Moraes isn't surprising, says Matteo Ceurvels, research firm Emarketer's analyst for Latin America and Spain. "The move was pragmatic, likely driven by the economic consequences of losing access to millions of users in its third-largest market worldwide, along with the millions of dollars in associated advertising revenue," Ceurvels says. "Although X may not be a top priority for most advertisers in Brazil, the platform needs them more than they need it."
• Some of Brazilian X's users have migrated to other platforms, such as Meta's Threads and, primarily, Bluesky. It's unclear how many of them will return to X

(More X.com stories.)