After X changed its ways and began following court orders that its billionaire owner, Elon Musk had previously vowed to oppose, the Brazilian Supreme Court on Tuesday approved X to resume operations in the country.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Court, who had been embroiled in a months-long spat with Musk, authorized X to promptly resume operations in the largest nation in Latin America.
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Moraes declared in the ruling that X had fulfilled all the prerequisites to resume operations within the nation.
Since late August, the once-named Twitter platform has been suspended in Brazil, one of its biggest and most sought-after markets for violating court orders about the moderation of hate speech and for neglecting to designate a local legal representative as required by law.
In recent weeks, Musk—who had referred to Moraes as a “dictator” and denounced the orders as censorship—began to change his mind. He blocked accounts that the court had flagged on social media, contacted a local representative and paid any outstanding fines.
In his ruling on Tuesday, Moraes mandated that Anatel, the Brazilian telecoms regulator, take steps to enable X to reactivate its internet service in less than a day.
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Expressing pride in its return to Brazil, X said via its Global Affairs account that it “will continue to defend freedom of speech within the boundaries of the law” in the country in which it conducts business.
One of the many recent confrontations between Musk, who sees himself as an advocate for free speech and governments trying to stop, the spread of false information online has taken place in Brazil. Other governments involved in these disputes include Australia and the United Kingdom.
Brazil’s minister of communications declared on Tuesday that X’s choice to abide by court orders and pay the fines was a “victory for the country.”
Juscelino Filho said in a statement, “We demonstrated to the world that everyone should respect our laws here.”
Brazil’s Supreme Court Legal Clash with Elon Musk
X was first suspended following a decision made on an individual basis by Moraes, the local leader of a campaign against alleged assaults on democracy and the use of disinformation for political purposes.
Subsequently, the chief justice and five other members of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld his decision.
Supporters of the action included President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who stated that foreigners were “not obliged to put up with Musk’s far-right ideology just because he is rich” and that individuals operating businesses in Brazil had to abide by local laws.
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However, the justices indicated at the time that if X followed the court’s decisions, they would be willing to reevaluate the suspension. At first, the social media giant declared that it would not follow them since they were “illegal.”
According to data platform Statista, as of April there were approximately 21.5 million users in Brazil making it the sixth-largest market for X worldwide. Many users moved to competing platforms like Threads, owned by Meta Platforms and Bluesky during the suspension.
Up until mid-August, X was represented by attorneys in Brazil. However, the company decided to close its offices in the country due to court orders that it called “censorship orders” without designating a local attorney to take over the firm’s legal responsibilities.
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That ultimately led to the suspension in a legal dispute, that also impacted Starlink, a well-known company under Musk’s ownership, whose accounts Moraes temporarily closed to pay fines levied against X.
X also announced in late September that it had begun to block accounts on court orders, at which point attorney Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao, a new X representative, was tapped.
The company paid outstanding fines earlier this month, which cleared the way for its reintegration into the nation.
Due to the suspension, X was unable to participate in the final month of the nation’s Sunday municipal elections.
Still, there will be run-off elections for mayor on October 27 in a number of cities, including the biggest city in Latin America, Sao Paulo.
