Elon Musk’s X shutters Brazil operations amid legal battle

The announcement marks the latest step in a showdown between the world’s richest man and Brazil’s Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who leads efforts to crack down on fake news and hate speech in Brazil’s biggest economy. Latin America.

“Moraes has threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders,” X’s Global Government Affairs department said in an online post. “He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.”

A spokesman for Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court declined to comment. X responded to questions from Bloomberg with an automated response. Musk called the decision to close the office “difficult,” in a separate post.

It’s not clear how big X’s operation is in Brazil. The platform had about 20 million active users in the country in the first quarter, according to data firm Sensor Tower, down about 15 percent from a year earlier.

Brazil’s highest court ordered the suspension of social media accounts from prominent users, forced the removal of posts and warned it would temporarily shut down entire platforms. Musk threatened to disobey the court’s orders, prompting it to open an investigation into him.