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Starlink, the satellite internet service owned and operated by SpaceX, said it would block social network X in Brazil to continue operating there without the threat of losing its license. Elon Musk owns both businesses.
Brazil’s Supreme Court banned X from the country after he openly defied court orders and failed to pay fines. X rejected requests to suspend accounts that post content aimed at undermining democratic institutions in Brazil, which is preparing for municipal elections in October.
A Supreme Court order has frozen Starlink’s financial assets in the country to ensure that X will pay the fine. The country’s top judge Alexandre De Moraes saw two Musk companies working in concert.
One takedown request relates to the account of Senator do Val who is being investigated for possible involvement in a plot to carry out a coup and sabotage de Moraes. The social network also refused to appoint a legal representative in the country, as required by federal regulations.
De Moraes’ critics say he has gone too far in controlling speech online and in social networks.
As CNBC previously reported, Starlink has been advertising on X and Musk has encouraged users to access the social network using its satellite internet service.
SpaceX says it has about 250,000 Starlink customers in Brazil. Competitors there include Hughesnet, Viasat and Telebras.
The Starlink account on X published the following statement, referring to his and de Moraes’ decision:
“For customers in Brazil (who may not be able to read this because X is blocked by @alexandre):
The Starlink team does everything to keep you connected. After last week’s order from @alexandre freezing Starlink’s finances and preventing Starlink from carrying out financial transactions in Brazil, we immediately started legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court explaining the illegality of this order and asking the Court not to freeze our assets.
Regardless of Starlink’s illegal treatment in freezing our assets, we comply with the order to block access to X in Brazil. We continue to pursue all legal means, as do others who agree that @alexandre’s new order violates the Brazilian constitution.
Before Starlink agreed to comply with the order to block X, the telecommunications regulator for Brazil, Anatel, had threatened sanctions against the company.
Public clashes between Musk and the current government in Brazil, a key non-NATO ally of the US, have been escalating for months.
Musk recently characterized de Moraes as a “criminal,” comparing it to movie and book villains like Darth Vader and Voldemort, and has repeatedly called for his impeachment, insisting de Moraes’ order amounts to illegal censorship.
Musk has praised Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and promised retribution against de Moraes and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
For example, Musk wrote over the weekend, “Unless the Brazilian government returns illegally seized property and SpaceX, we will seek to seize government assets as well. I hope Lula likes commercial flying.”
In April, Musk wrote “How did @Alexandre de Moraes become the dictator of Brazil? He has Lula on a leash.”
In an interview with CNN Brazil after the court’s order was unanimously upheld by a panel of five judges, President Lula said he hoped the controversy over X’s suspension in his country would show the world “it is not necessary to implement Musk’s far-right free-for-all only because he is rich,” according to a translation from Portuguese to English reported by The Guardian.
Under President Lula, Brazil’s environmental authority Ibama seized Starlink terminals used by illegal miners in the Amazon rainforest
