X agrees to pay Brazil fines, court orders finances unblocked

RIO DE JANEIRO: A Brazilian judge on Wednesday ordered the unblocking of the bank accounts of Elon Musk’s X in the country after the social media platform agreed to pay more than $5 million in fines.

The ruling by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes paves the way for the suspension of X to be lifted in Brazil, where it has been off-limits to users since August 31 in a standoff over disinformation between the judge and Musk.

Moraes ordered X shut down in Latin America´s biggest country after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts and then failed to name a new legal representative in the country as ordered.

In his latest decision, the judge ordered Brazil´s central bank to unblock X´s bank accounts so it can receive transfers and “immediately make payment of the fines indicated.”

X had informed the court it would pay fines to the tune of some $5.2 million, according to the ruling. High-profile judge Moraes has been engaged in a long feud with Tesla and SpaceX owner Musk as part of his drive to crack down on disinformation in Brazil.

The clash between the Brazilian court and the billionaire has morphed into a high-stakes tussle testing the limits of both freedom of expression and corporate responsibility in South America´s largest country.

X had more than 22 million users in Brazil before the ban, which was put into place on August 31.

The company has in the last week started complying with the Brazilian court´s conditions to get reactivated.

Musk has repeatedly hit out at Moraes in social media posts, calling him an “evil dictator” and dubbing him “Voldemort” after the villain from the “Harry Potter” series.