Brazil Telecom Regulator Moves to Block Access to Elon Musk's X After Court Order

Brazil's telecommunications regulator said on Friday it was suspending access to Elon Musk's X social network in the country to comply with an order from a judge who has been locked in a months-long feud with the billionaire investor.

The popular social media platform missed a court-imposed deadline on Thursday evening to name a legal representative in Brazil, triggering the suspension.

Musk has argued that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was trying to enforce unjustified censorship, while the judge has insisted that social media needs hate speech regulations.

"They're shutting down the #1 source of truth in Brazil," Musk said in a post on X on Friday.

The judge's ruling could cause X to lose one of its largest and most coveted markets, at a time when Musk has struggled with advertising revenue for the platform.

X remained accessible in Brazil late on Friday, though some Brazilians posted on other platforms that their access to X was already being blocked. Three of the country's top telecommunications carriers said they would begin blocking access from midnight (0300 GMT on Saturday), according to a report by local news outlet UOL.

The feud has led to the freezing this week of satellite internet provider Starlink's bank accounts in Brazil. Starlink is a unit of Musk-led rocket company SpaceX.

In his ruling, Moraes ordered that X, formerly Twitter, be suspended in Brazil until it complied with all related court orders, including the payment of more than $3 million in fines, as well as the designation of a local representative, as required by Brazilian law.

Moraes also ordered telecommunications regulator Anatel to implement the suspension order.

The agency told Reuters it is proceeding with compliance, but without specifying a timetable.

To effectively close X in Brazil, telecommunication companies will need to stop carrying the network's traffic, while also preventing users of the site from dodging it by concealing their locations with virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Moraes ordered that those who continued to access X via VPNs be fined up to 50,000 reais ($9,000) per day.

Tech giants Apple and Alphabet's Google were initially instructed to remove X from their app stores and implement so-called anti-VPN obstacles that would make it more difficult for users of Apple's iOS operating system and Google's Android to open the X app on phones or tablets.

But Moraes later reversed that part of his order, saying it would not be needed.

Press offices for Apple and Google declined to comment.

Lapdogs and Dictators? 

Unlike in many other countries, Brazil's Supreme Court judges are able to exercise sweeping powers to make unilateral decisions. But in the dispute over X, Moraes has been backed by a majority of the 11-member court, including Chief Justice Roberto Barroso.

Musk, in addition to owning X and 40% of SpaceX, is the CEO of electric vehicle giant Tesla.

The dispute over X has its roots in a Moraes order from earlier this year that required the platform to block accounts implicated in probes of alleged spreading of distorted news and hate.

Musk denounced the order as censorship. He responded by closing the company's offices in Brazil but ensured the platform was still available in the country.

He has said Starlink would continue to serve Brazilians, including the military, for free "until this matter is resolved."

Earlier on Friday, Starlink asked the Supreme Court to suspend its decision to freeze its local bank accounts, arguing it has complied with all judicial orders. That request was dismissed on Friday evening.

Asked to comment, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted that all businesses operating in the country must comply with their legal obligations.

"Just because a guy has a lot of money doesn't mean he can disrespect" the law, the leftist leader told local radio on Friday.

Musk derided the president as Moraes' "lapdog" in a Thursday post in which he also called the judge a "dictator."

At an event on Friday, Moraes showed no signs of backing down.

"Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable," he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2024



from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/BiO5dAL

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 origins: Should we pay more attention to the lab leak theory and formally investigate it?

Image
A year and a half into the pandemic, we still do not know exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, came from. The prevailing view so far has been that the virus “spilled over” from bats into humans. But there are increasing calls to investigate the possibility that it emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, where Covid first appeared at the end of 2019. So what do we know for sure, and what do we need still to find out? We know the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is close to that of bat coronaviruses . Several decades ago its “ancestor” was circulating in bat populations in southern Asia. But there are still many unanswered questions: we don’t know how the virus arrived in Wuhan, how its sequence evolved to allow human infection, and under what conditions it infected the first people who crossed its path. And for each of these stages, we don’t know whether there was a human contribution (direct or indirect). Zoonotic transmission pathways, in other words the pas
Read more

Menstrual cups are cheaper, more sustainable than pads and tampons for women

Image
Every year in America, women spend at least US$2.8 billion on sanitary pads and tampons that can take hundreds of years to decompose . Is there a more economical and environmentally friendly way? To find out, we asked Susan Powers , a professor of sustainable environmental systems at Clarkson University about her work comparing the environmental impact of tampons, sanitary pads and menstrual cups. What is a menstrual cup? A menstrual cup is a type of reusable feminine hygiene product. It’s a small, flexible bell-shaped cup made of rubber or silicone that a woman inserts into her vagina to catch and collect menstrual fluid. It can be used for up to 12 hours, after which it is removed to dispose of the fluid and cleaned. The cup is rinsed with hot water and soap between each insertion and sterilized in boiling water at least once per period. A cup can last up to 10 years . Although menstrual cups have been around for decades, they historically have been less popular than pads or ta
Read more

Human bodies respond to infections differently depending on the time of day

Image
When microorganisms – such as bacteria or viruses – infect us, our immune system jumps into action. It’s highly trained to sense and eliminate infections and clear up any damage caused by them. It’s typically assumed our immune systems work the exact same way regardless of whether an infection occurs during the day or at night. But research spanning over half a century now shows our bodies actually respond differently at day and night. The reason for this is our body clock, and the fact that each cell in the body, including our immune cells, can tell what time of day it is. Our body clock has evolved over millions of years to help us survive. Every cell in the body has a collection of proteins that indicate the time depending on their levels. Knowing whether it’s day or night means our body can adjust its functions and behaviours (such as when we want to eat) to the correct time. Our body clock does this by generating 24 hour rhythms (also termed circadian rhythms ) in how cells f
Read more