Starlink is the new battleground between Musk and Brazil
The country’s top court supported the controversial decision to suspend social network X, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, also backed the decision. Judge Alexandre de Moraes of the top court found that the platform allowed postings of hate messages and falsehoods about the country’s electronic voting system that undermined Brazil’s democracy. This heightened tension between Brazil and Elon Musk’s business empire.
“The Brazilian judiciary may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s extreme right-wing ideology just because he is rich,” Lula said in an interview.
In an X statement, Musk said that he would pursue a reciprocal seizure of the Brazilian assets in response to the judge’s previous order to freeze Starlink’s accounts for potential use in X’s payment of fines. However, he did not specify how.
When Starlink disobeyed Moraes’ order for all Internet providers to ban domestic access to X on Monday, the company found itself once more in the sights of the Brazilian authorities.
Revocation of Starlink’s license to operate in Brazil is one of the penalties for noncompliance, according to a senior official at telecom regulator Anatel.
