Supreme Court Panel Affirms Nationwide Block of X in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO — A panel of judges from Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld a decision by one of its justices to block billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X nationwide, according to the court’s website.

The broader support among justices is a setback for Musk and his supporters, who have accused Justice Alexandre de Moraes of being an authoritarian censor of political speech.

The panel includes five of the full bench’s 11 justices, including de Moraes, who last Friday ordered the platform blocked for failing to appoint a local legal representative, as required by law. X will remain blocked until it complies with his orders and pays outstanding fines that, as of last week, exceeded $3 million, according to his decision.

De Moraes also imposed a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) on individuals or companies using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X. Some legal experts, including Brazil’s bar association, have questioned the grounds for that decision and how it would be enforced. The bar association stated that it would request the Supreme Court review that provision.

However, the majority of the panel on Monday upheld both the block and VPN fine — with one justice opposing the latter unless users are shown to be using X to commit crimes.

Brazil is one of the largest markets for X, with tens of millions of users. This block marks a dramatic confrontation between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts, and misinformation.