Deadline looms for Musk to appoint X representative in Brazil

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes set a deadline for billionaire Elon Musk to appoint a new legal representative for the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in Brazil, which expired at 8:07 p.m. (Brasília time) on Thursday, August 29. Musk is the owner of the platform.

With the deadline expired, non-compliance with the decision will be documented in the proceedings. The next step could involve suspending the social media platform in the country. No timeline has been set for this decision yet.

On Wednesday (28), the justice ordered Musk to make the appointment within 24 hours. The summons was issued on the Supreme Court's profile on the social network. On August 17, Musk announced the closure of the company's headquarters in Brazil and accused Moraes of threatening him.

The announcement followed repeated violations of the justice's orders, including the directive to block the profile of Senator Marcos do Val (Podemos-Espírito Santo) and other individuals under investigation.

Earlier, Musk used his X account to mock Moraes' decision to subpoena him via the platform, posting an AI-generated image that compared the justice to villains from the Harry Potter and Star Wars series.

The other side

In a statement, X announced that it would not comply with the justice's “illegal decisions,” asserting that they are intended to “censor his [Alexandre de Moraes] political opponents.”

“Attempts to defend ourselves in court were met with threats of arrest for our legal representative in Brazil. Even after her resignation, the justice froze all her bank accounts. Our challenges against his evidently illegal actions were either rejected or ignored. It appears that Justice Alexandre de Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unable or unwilling to confront him,” X noted.

The social network also stated that it will make the justice's confidential decisions against the company public. The platform emphasized that it “does not comply with illegal orders in secrecy.”

"We are absolutely not insisting that other countries adopt the same freedom of expression laws as the United States. The core issue is that Justice Alexandre de Moraes is requiring us to violate Brazil's own laws. We will not comply with such demands," the company added.