MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

De Moraes imposes new fines on X before lifting the ban

After the fines are paid, it remains to be seen whether De Moraes will reinstate the platform in Brazil

Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes Moraes Friday ruled that tycoon Elon Musk's social media platform X must pay a R$ 10 million (US$ 1.84 million) fine to be reinstated, Agencia Brasil reported. The company had been banned from operating in the South American country for failing to comply with some orders from the judge regarding the suspension of users posting content deemed inappropriate.

In his decision Friday, De Moraes also ordered lawyer Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova to pay a fine of R$ 300,000 (around US$ 55,162). On Thursday, X's lawyers asked the minister to release the platform after submitting the documents requested to prove the reactivation of representation in Brazil, as well as appointing De Oliveira Villa Nova to act as the company's legal representative in the country.

The R$ 10 million fine was imposed for non-compliance with the STF's Sept. 19 and 23 decisions after X was hosted on servers belonging to the digital security company Cloudflare which allowed it to circumvent the ban.

In the case of De Oliveira Villa Nova, the fine was also for non-compliance with De Moraes' decisions. She acted as X's representative in Brazil before the office was closed in the country and returned to the role after Musk decided to reactivate the representation.