De Moraes now freezes Starlink's accounts to collect fines on X

Friday, August 30th 2024 - 09:55 UTC

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”De Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unable or unwilling to confront him,” Musk's X argued

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes Thursday froze internet supplier Starlink's accounts to guarantee the payments of the fines he imposed on the social media platform X, Agencia Brasil reported. Both X and Starlink are owned by South African-born tycoon Elon Musk, who has repeatedly dubbed the magistrate “a dictator.”

De Moraes had imposed these financial penalties on the network formerly known as Twitter for failing to comply with his request to shut down the accounts of users under investigation -namely, Senator Marcos do Val, among others- and for not submitting any data about them. Starlink provides internet services to rural areas of the country and has contracts with public bodies such as the Armed Forces and electoral courts. The latest ruling came one day after De Moraes gave Musk 24 hours to appoint a new legal representative for X in Brazil. On Aug. 17, Musk announced the closure of the company's headquarters in Brazil and accused De Moraes of threatening him.

Starlink said Thursday that it will challenge De Moraes' decision regarding the company's bank accounts. “The order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink is liable for the fines levied against X. It was issued in secret and without giving Starlink any of the due process guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. We intend to address the matter legally,” the company argued.

De Moraes' deadline to appoint a new legal representative of X ended at 8.07 pm Thursday and, as expected, it was not complied with. In this scenario, the next step would be to suspend the social network in the country, for which there is still no deadline. X said in a statement that it would not comply with the judge's “illegal decisions” aimed at “censoring“ De Moraes' ”political opponents.”

“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, the minister threatened to arrest our legal representative in Brazil. Even after his resignation, he froze all his bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were rejected or ignored. Minister Alexandre De Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unable or unwilling to confront him,” X underlined while announcing it would be disclosing the judge's confidential decisions against the company. X “does not comply with illegal orders in secret,” the company stressed.

“We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Justice Alexandre De Moraes is demanding that we violate Brazil's own laws. We simply won't do that,” the company added.