Brazil judge will lift ban on Elon Musk's X only if it pays pending fines

Brazil's Supreme Court said on Friday finally agreed to resume Elon Musk's social platform X's services in the country but only if the social network paid over $5 million in pending fines, including a new one.

This development in the judicial battle between the social media platform and one of its largest and most coveted markets comes after tech billionaire's firm, based in the United States, requested the Brazilian court to lift a ban on X, Reuters reported.

The company had made the request earlier this week as it said that the company had complied with the court's orders to halt the spread of misinformation.

However, according to a court document, Judge Alexandre de Moraes ruled that the firm and its legal representative in Brazil must still pay a total of $3.4 million in pending fines previously ordered by the court.

In his decision, the judge said that the court can use resources already frozen from X and Starlink accounts in Brazil, but to do so, the Musk-owned satellite company had to drop its pending appeal against the funds blockage.

The judge also demanded a new $1.8 million fine related to a brief period last week when X became available again for some users in Brazil.

While X hasn't officially commented on the matter, a person close to the tech firm revealed that the firm will likely pay all the fines, but will consider challenging the extra $1.8 million fine that was imposed by the court after the ban.

X has been suspended since late August in Brazil, one of its largest and most coveted markets, after Moraes ruled it had failed to comply with orders related to restricting hate speech and naming a local legal representative.

Musk, who had denounced the orders as censorship and called Moraes a "dictator," backed down and started to reverse his position last week, when X lawyers said the platform tapped a local representative and would comply with court rulings.

In Friday's decision, Moraes said that X had proved it had now blocked accounts as ordered by the court, and also named the required legal representative in Brazil.