X closes Brazilian office after judge threatens arrests over censorship orders

Social media giant X is closing its offices in Brazil due to legal threats from Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.

The company claimed Saturday that executives were "forced to make this decision" after de Moraes threatened arrests if the platform did not take down content deemed problematic by the Brazilian government.

"Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders," the X Global Government Affairs office announced via the platform. "He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions."

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"Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process. As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately."

De Moraes ordered X to take down specific accounts earlier this year, accusing the platform of harboring "digital militias" he claims were spreading misinformation and hateful material regarding former President Jair Bolsonaro.

"Due to demands by "Justice" [de Moraes] in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law, ???? has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil," X owner Elon Musk said on social media Saturday. "He is an utter disgrace to justice."

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Musk later followed-up on that message, writing, "The decision to close the ???? office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to [de Moraes]’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed."

X representatives previously told the Supreme Court of Brazil that it would comply with legal rulings ordering the censorship of problematic accounts. 

However, when those measures failed to materialize, X's lawyers told the court that "operational faults" made it impossible to follow through on the orders. 

Despite the closure of X's offices in Brazil, Musk claims citizens will reportedly still be able to access the social media platform.