The court gives X 5 days to validate his legal representative in Brazil

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court has given Elon Musk’s X social platform five days to submit documents validating its new legal representative in the country, a court ruling showed on Saturday.

X Lawyers said late Friday that it had appointed a legal representative in Brazil, addressing one of the court-ordered requests to allow the social platform to resume operations in the country.

In his decision on Saturday, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes gave five days for X to provide business records and other documents proving that X had officially signed Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as his legal representative in Brazil.

In late August, Brazil’s top court ordered mobile phone and internet service providers to block X in Brazil, and users were blocked within hours after X failed to comply with the court’s demands, including appointing a legal representative.

Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a legal representative to operate in the country. The representative would assume legal responsibilities for the firm at the local level.

X had a legal representative in Brazil until mid-August, when it decided to close its offices and lay off its staff in the country.

The move followed a months-long dispute between Musk and Moraes over the firm’s failure to comply with court orders requiring the platform to take action against the spread of hate speech, which the billionaire denounced as censorship.