At the time of publication, it was not immediately clear how many and which accounts have been affected. However, the official X account said that the owners of the accounts have been notified.
"X Corp. has been forced by court decisions to block certain popular accounts in Brazil. We have informed those accounts that we have taken this action. We do not know the reasons these blocking orders have been issued. We do not know which posts are alleged to violate the law. We are prohibited from saying which court or judge issued the order, or on what grounds," the company said.
"We are prohibited from saying which accounts are impacted. We are threatened with daily fines if we fail to comply. We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible. The people of Brazil, regardless of their political beliefs, are entitled to freedom of speech, due process, and transparency from their own authorities," it added.
Elon Musk asked Minister of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil Alexandre de Moraes why it would be happening.
This past week, journalist Michael Shellenberger posted on the platform about the “Twitter Files” in the country of Brazilwhere censorship was also noted.
“Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes,” Schellenberger wrote.
"De Moraes has thrown people in jail without trial for things they posted on social media. He has demanded the removal of users from social media platforms. And he has required the censorship of specific posts, without giving users any right of appeal or even the right to see the evidence presented against them," he added.
Shellenberger’s reporting revealed that de Moraes and the Superior Electoral Court demanded that then Twitter “reveal personal details about Twitter users who used hashtags he did not like” as well as “access to Twitter’s internal data, in violation of Twitter policy.”
Additionally, the Brazilian official “sought to censor, unilaterally, Twitter posts by sitting members of Brazil’s Congress” as well as “weaponize Twitter’s content moderation policies against supporters of then-president Bolsonaro.”
The files displayed “the origins of the Brazilian judiciary’s demand for sweeping censorship powers; the court’s use of censorship for anti-democratic election interference; and the birth of the Censorship Industrial Complex in Brazil,” Shellenberger wrote.
