Elon Musk says X will close its operations in Brazil due to “censorship orders”

Elon Musk’s X platform will stop operating in Brazil. In a post from X’s Global Government Affairs account on Saturday, the social media platform outlined that “effective immediately” it will be closing its operation in Brazil to “protect the safety of our staff”.

X claims that Brazillian judge Alexandre de Moraes has threatened its legal council in the country, Rachel Nova, with a daily fine of 20,000 reis ($3,653) and an arrest decree if the platform did not comply with what it is calling “censorship orders”.

“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” reads the statement from X.

The X service will remain available for people to use in Brazil. It is unclear how many jobs will be lost due to this decision.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has lashed out on the platform, describing Moraes as “an utter disgrace to justice.”

In a separate post, Musk also stated “The decision to close the X office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”

Due to demands by “Justice” @Alexandre in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law,