Elon Musk, who is in trouble with the Brazilian judiciary, announces the closure of X offices in the country

“The X service remains available to Brazilians,” the company said in a post.

The billionaire announced on Saturday, August 17, that the social network's Brazilian offices would be closed due to a standoff between the billionaire and a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court. “X has no choice but to close its local operations in Brazil”wrote Elon Musk. “Service X remains available for Brazilians”A separate company statement said the group was forced to make the decision “Protect security” of his staff on site. He assured that Judge Alexandre de Moraes “Our legal representative in Brazil is threatened with arrest” in case of non-compliance with what the social network considers as decisions “Censorship” aims to block certain content.

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“The decision to close X’s offices in Brazil was difficult”said Elon Musk. “But if we had accepted the secret (illegal) censorship and Alexandre de Moraes's request to share private information, we would not have been able to explain our actions without feeling ashamed.” The Brazilian government’s Minister for Digital Policy, Joao Brant, criticized the“pathetic attitude” by X. According to him, the social network causes a “likely escalation that could lead to the blocking of the platform”.

In the name of the fight against disinformation, the judge has in recent years ordered the blocking of the accounts of influential figures in Brazil's ultra-conservative movements, especially since the attempts by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, an admirer of Elon Musk, to discredit the electronic voting system used in the election won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.