By Luana Maria Benedito
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Media platform
X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, claims that Moraes secretly threatened one of the company’s legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to remove certain content from its platform to delete.
The social media giant published photos of a document allegedly signed by Moraes, stating that a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest decree would be imposed on X representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if the platform did not fully comply orders from Moraes.
“To protect the safety of our staff, we have decided to close our facility in Brazil with immediate effect,” said X.
Brazil’s Supreme Court, where Moraes sits, told Reuters it would not discuss the issue and neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the document shared by X.
The X service will remain available to residents of Brazil, the platform said on Saturday.
Earlier this year, Moraes ordered
Moraes opened an investigation into the billionaire earlier this year after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had blocked. Musk has called the Moraes’ decisions regarding X “unconstitutional.”
Following Musk’s challenges, X representatives changed course and told Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with the legal rulings.
Lawyers representing explain why it had allegedly not fully complied with its decisions.
Musk called Moraes an “utter disgrace to justice” in posts on
