A shaven-headed Brazilian judge dubbed ‘Voldemort’ has taken on X owner Elon Musk and shut down the social platform over claims of misinformation.
Alexandre de Moraes’ X ban began early on Saturday morning, making the app largely inaccessible on both the web and mobile app.
The Supreme Court judge initiated the nationwide shutdown after Musk refused to name a legal representative to the country, missing a deadline imposed by Moraes.
Moraes, 55, and Musk, 53, have been embroiled in a months-long feud over free speech, far-right accounts, and misinformation – with the new ban becoming the result of the escalating tensions.
Internet service providers across the nation, which is home to 215million people and was one of X’s largest markets, completely blocked the platform yesterday and the country’s main news sites stopped posting at the same time.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered an immediate ban on X in Brazil which started early on Saturday
X owner Elon Musk dubbed Moraes ‘Voldemort’ – likening him to the evil overlord in the Harry Potter series
A furious Musk took to X following the ban, saying: ‘The tyrant de Voldemort is crushing the people’s right to free speech,’ likening de Moraes to the evil wizard in the Harry Potter series.
De Moraes said X will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of £6,790 for people or companies using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access it.
The Brazilian Bar Association on Friday said in a statement that it would request the Supreme Court review the fines Moraes has imposed on all citizens using VPNs to access the platform.
‘I’ve used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social networks,’ Maurício Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said on the platform before its shutdown.
‘It never occurred to me that this type of tool would be banned in Brazil. It’s dystopian.’
The war between the two began to escalate earlier this year as Moraes demanded X block users that were seen uploading clearly fake or inflammatory posts.
Moraes ordered the social media platform to block certain accounts implicated on investigations of so-called ‘digital militias’ that have been accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro.
After Musk challenged that decision and said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked, Moraes opened an inquiry into the billionaire in early April.
X representatives eventually reversed course and told the Supreme Court that the social media giant would obey the legal rulings.
The platform was suspended after Musk refused to name a legal representative to Brazil
In April, however, Moraes asked X to explain why it allegedly had not fully complied with his decisions and ordered fines of $20,000 per day for any account X reactivated.
In response, lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court that ‘operational faults’ had allowed users who were ordered blocked to stay active on the social media platform.
Since then, the legal battle between the pair has become increasingly more tense, as last Wednesday Moraes warned musk that X would be banned if the company failed to notify the supreme court who its legal representative in Brazil was.
The platform declined to do so.
On Thursday, Moraes also froze the assets of the company Starlink Holding in Brazil, which Musk also owns, to ensure that fines applied by courts were paid, multiple Brazilian media outlets reported.
The Tesla CEO responded on X by saying that Moraes was ‘an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge.’
In a separate post, he labeled the judge a ‘tyrant’ and ‘dictator of Brazil’ while adding that President Lula da Silva was his ‘lapdog.’
Hours after the judge’s decision, Musk said on X that Moraes ‘has repeatedly broken the laws he has sworn to uphold’.
Moraes, who rarely gives interviews, and who in his most recent statements on the subject has avoided mentioning Musk or X by name, said on Friday: ‘We have a right to defend fundamental rights.
‘Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable.’
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