Why did Brazil ban X? Reason explored as memes erupt online in wake of disinformation dispute

Social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, was recently banned in Brazil on August 31, 2024. The news comes a day after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the platform to pay the remaining fines for breaking the rules of the country and agreed to the ones set by the court.

The platform will not be accessible for any Brazilian resident in the upcoming 24 hours and a separate order was issued for companies such as Google and Apple to remove the application from their respective stores. People are supposed to be fined R$5,000 in case anyone tries to use X following the ban.

Notably, Alexandre de Moraes ordered Musk on August 28 that he has to finalize a legal representative for the platform in the country within 24 hours. The order resulted from a dispute related to free speech on the platform with Alexandre de Moraes in April this year.

Social media platforms were also flooded with several memes related to the ban of X in the country, with many people expressing their sadness over the same. Most of them included animated characters with a few others sharing funny reactions to the reasons behind the platform's ban in the country.

Memes posted on social media (Images via X/brndxix and meltborne)

Memes posted on social media (Images via X/strucktrue and notgwendalupe)

While announcing his decision to ban the platform, Alexandre de Moraes said that Musk did not respect "Brazilian sovereignty" and attempted to portray himself as an individual who is immune to the rules of any country. X announced the decision to discontinue its operation in the country in advance on August 17 and wrote in a statement:

"Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process."

The statement additionally claimed that Alexandre's actions were "incompatible with democratic government" and the residents must choose between the Justice or democracy.

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Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered to ban some accounts in Brazil in April 2024

As mentioned, Elon Musk was involved in a dispute with Justice Alexandre de Moraes since April this year after X did not agree to the orders to block a few accounts being operated in Brazil. The pages were accused of spreading misinformation and hate messages on the platform.

Alexandre de Moraes launched a separate investigation into Musk regarding the spread of fake news the same month. Musk was also in the headlines for some time after he joined X in 2022 and restored the accounts of some personalities that were banned, including Donald Trump.

Although the list of accounts ordered to be banned was not revealed by anyone, a few of them were reportedly part of a network called digital militias.

De Moraes had already investigated the network for around five years for spreading fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices alongside encouraging demonstrations in Brazil after former President Jair Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election.

Although the platform has been banned in the country, X previously shared in another post that they were not willing to agree to the rules set by Alexandre, saying that the latter threatened to imprison their Brazilian legal representative when they were defending themselves inside the court and added:

"Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him."

The post claimed that they would reveal all the "illegal demands" of the judge along with the rest of the court documents in the upcoming days. They ended by saying that they are still committed to protecting everyone's freedom of speech.