![X has now paid millions of dollars of court fines in Brazil [Mauro Pimentel/ AFP]](https://obasanjonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/X-platform.jpg)
After a temporary suspension, Brazil has lifted the ban on Elon Musk’s X platform, reopening access to users across the country following legal review.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has removed the ban on Elon Musk’s X, which was previously blocked due to a controversy involving disinformation.
“I authorize the immediate resumption of X’s activities,” Judge Alexandre de Moraes stated in his ruling, following the company’s payment of millions of dollars in fines for not complying with multiple court orders.
He issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Brazil’s communications regulator to restore access to the platform.
Musk, the wealthiest person globally and a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has not yet responded to the decision.
On its Global Affairs account, X expressed pride in returning to Brazil and stated that it would “continue to defend freedom of speech within the boundaries of the law” in all countries where it operates.
At the end of August, X, previously recognized as Twitter, was suspended in Brazil—a key and highly desirable market—due to a conflict concerning online disinformation connected to Brazil’s 2022 election campaign. Additionally, it had not appointed a legal representative in the country as mandated by law.
READ ALSO: Musk Accuses Democrats of Attempting to Curb Free Speech
After Moraes blocked X, Musk criticized the judge, describing him as an “evil dictator” and comparing him to “Voldemort,” the antagonist from the Harry Potter series.
Moraes, on his end, charged the platform with eroding democracy by letting disinformation spread—a stance supported by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The president asserted that the state would not “be intimidated by individuals, companies or digital platforms that consider themselves above the law.”
X ultimately complied with all of Moraes’s demands to have the suspension lifted.
The judge confirmed last week that the company had additionally paid fines totaling approximately $5.2 million.
The Brazil disagreement was part of a series of recent confrontations between Musk and several governments, including those of Australia and the United Kingdom, which aimed to curb the spread of misinformation online.
Before it was blocked, X had accumulated 22 million users in Brazil.
