WORLD

BRAZIL JUDGE LIFTS BAN ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM X

09/10/2024 11:57 AM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 9 (Bernama-dpa) -- Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday lifted a ban on tech billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X in the country, the German news agency (dpa ) reported.

"I order the end of the suspension and authorise the immediate resumption of X's activities," de Moraes said in his decision.

The National Telecommunications Agency ANATEL was instructed to take steps to resume the platform's service.

X's Global Government Affairs team wrote on the platform it was "proud" to return to Brazil.

"Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process," the company wrote. 

"We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate."

De Moraes ordered X be taken offline at the end of August, after the platform let a court-imposed deadline to appoint a legal representative pass. The company also refused to block the accounts of right-wing activists who spread conspiracy theories and misinformation.

X applied for the block to be lifted after it appointed a legal representative for Brazil as requested and blocked the profiles of nine users under investigation by the Supreme Court.

In addition, the platform paid all outstanding fines totalling around 28.6 million reals (US$4.24 million).

Musk, a prominent supporter of former US president Donald Trump in the US election campaign, portrays himself as a defender of free speech. He has accused de Moraes of attacking freedom of expression and called him an "evil dictator".

-- BERNAMA-dpa

 

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