Elon Musk’s X to close operations in Brazil as clash over content escalates

Government threats about how it moderates its platform left the company ‘no choice,’ Elon Musk says.

Friction has escalated between Elon Musk and global governments about content regulation on his platform. Picture: AFP

X Corp says it is closing its Brazilian operations after a clash over a judge’s order to remove certain content, escalating friction between Elon Musk and global governments about content regulation on his platform.

The move, which X announced on Saturday, doesn’t affect users’ ability to access the platform in Brazil, where authorities have been clamping down more broadly on content on social-media and messaging platforms that they say is linked to attacks on the leftist government.

But it shows how Mr Musk’s more hands-off approach to speech on the service he acquired nearly two years ago is colliding with concerns of officials in multiple continents, who fear it is enabling hate speech and other content they say is dangerous.

X said in a post that it decided to close operations to protect the safety of its staff in the face of what it said were threats from a Supreme Court justice. Mr Musk said his company felt it had to make the move after the judge issued orders “that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentine, American and international law.” Mr Musk and X didn’t elaborate on what exactly closing operations in the country would entail.

Brazil’s Supreme Court didn’t respond to requests for comment on X’s statement. Mr Musk has been wrangling with Brazil’s Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes for months over content moderation restrictions in an increasingly tense showdown over free speech in Latin America’s biggest nation.

In April, Mr de Moraes ordered X to remove several accounts amid a broader crackdown by Brazil on accounts deemed to be propagating hate speech and false information. The move was part of a probe by the Supreme Court into members of the political right who stormed Congress in January 2023, an attack that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has described as a coup attempt.

Mr Musk initially said he would risk closing X’s Brazil office to refuse the order, though the company later that month struck a less confrontational tone, saying it was “dedicated to preserving our Brazilian office and operations” while also protecting free speech.

Mr de Moraes opened an investigation into Mr Musk over possible obstruction of justice, and included him in an existing inquiry into online disinformation campaigns. The Supreme Court justice, whom Mr Musk has labelled “Brazil’s Darth Vader”, is on what he says is a quest to clean up the internet in the name of safeguarding democracy.

In recent years, Mr de Moraes has slapped fines and bans on social media companies and ordered police to investigate some of the country’s most powerful conservative bloggers, businessmen and politicians over what he deemed offensive online posts. Mr Musk, who has called himself a free speech absolutist, dismantled much of Twitter’s infrastructure around content moderation after he took over the company in October 2022.

Mr Musk also has clashed with officials in Europe. His contention amid recent civil unrest in Britain that civil war was “inevitable” prompted rebukes from members of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government. And X has sparred repeatedly with Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner for the internal market, over content policies.

The billionaire also is battling advertisers in the US and elsewhere who long have been the platform’s main source of revenue but fled in droves after his takeover because of concerns about his stewardship. Revenue plunged as a result, and X this month filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against several advertisers and an ad-industry coalition claiming they illegally conspired to boycott the platform.

Mr Musk enjoys tremendous popularity across swathes of Brazil, thanks partly to his satellite service Starlink, which has connected the country’s vast rural and jungle expanses to the internet.

Starlink’s rapid expansion has come as officials in Mr da Silva’s administration raised concerns about Mr Musk’s growing influence over the country. After getting regulatory approval two years ago, Starlink eclipsed competitors in May to become the country’s biggest satellite internet provider.

Mr Musk, whose companies include electric-car maker Tesla, has courted right-wing leaders around the world, including Mr da Silva’s predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil’s federal audit court is investigating Starlink’s use by public authorities in the country, threatening to place restrictions on the service. Anatel, the telecoms regulator, has opened a separate inquiry into Starlink, saying that its rapid growth in subscribers of more than 20 per cent a month could crowd out new players.

X, formerly known as Twitter, hasn’t said publicly how much of its business Brazil accounts for. Revenue there wasn’t broken out in Twitter’s last public annual report before Mr Musk’s takeover, which said the US accounted for 56 per cent of its $US5.1bn in 2021, while Japan made up 13 per cent and the rest of the world combined for about 31%.

Dow Jones