Starlink backtracks, complies with order to block X in Brazil
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Elon Musk's Starlink informed Brazil's telecom regulator that it would conclude the blocking within hours.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
BRASILIA – Mr Elon Musk’s satellite broadband firm, Starlink, on Sept 3 said it is complying with Brazil’s top court order to block access to social media platform X in the country, a day after informing its regulator it would not obey the order.
Starlink had emerged as a fresh battleground between Mr Musk and Brazil, as top court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the freeze of the company’s accounts for possible use to pay fines owed by X. The latter is also owned by Mr Musk.
“Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing of our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” Starlink posted on X. Starlink has more than 200,000 customers in the Latin American nation.
On Sept 2, Brazil’s telecom regulator Anatel said it had been informed by Starlink that the latter would not obey Mr de Moraes’ order for all internet providers to block domestic access to X.
An Anatel representative told Reuters, however, that Starlink had backtracked and informed the regulator on Sept 3 it would conclude the blocking within hours.
Anatel verified Starlink has already started to cut access to X in Brazil.
X has been blocked since last week after Mr de Moraes ordered all telecom providers in Brazil to shut down the social media platform for lacking a legal representative in the country.
The decision was later upheld by a panel of Supreme Court justices.
In its post, Starlink said it had initiated legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court explaining the “gross illegality” of Mr de Moraes’ order that froze its finances and prevents it from conducting financial transactions in the country.
Starlink lost the deadline to present a new appeal against the decision to freeze its accounts, a court document showed on Sept 3. It was not immediately clear what legal instrument the firm would use to request the overturn of the freezing.
The dispute over X has its roots in a de Moraes order from earlier this year that required the platform to block accounts implicated in probes of alleged spreading of distorted news and hate messages.
Mr Musk denounced the order as censorship. He responded by closing the company’s offices in Brazil in mid-August, but the platform continued to be available until Mr de Moraes shut it down.
Some Brazilians can still access the service by virtual private network (VPN) and other ways. REUTERS
