The Supreme Court of Brazil has blocked the bank accounts of Elon Musk's Internet company “Starlink”, and his social network "X" is on the verge of closing in the South American country, reported the Reuters agency, quoted by BTA.
„Starlink“ is the satellite Internet service of the technology company “SpaceX“ (SpaceX) - part of Musk's growing business empire, which also includes the giant in the field of electric cars "Tesla". Musk is also the owner of the “X“ and CEO of "Tesla", reminds Reuters.
The Internet company "Starlink" confirmed that it had received an order from a judge preventing it from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.
The court decision was signed by Supreme Court judge Alessandre de Moraes and is in response to the lack of legal representatives in Brazil for the “X“ platform, a Supreme Court source told Reuters.
The decision to block the accounts of “Starlink” is also related to a separate dispute over unpaid fines on the part of “X”, due to refusal to hand over some documents. The local newspaper “Folha“ reported that the fines were at least 20 million reais ($3.6 million), but Reuters was unable to confirm that amount.
The deadline that the Supreme Court of Brazil gave to “X“ for the appointment of a legal representative in the country, expires.
Brazilian law requires all Internet companies to have a legal representative in the country who can receive court orders and be generally accountable to business law, Reuters explains.
Judge De Moraes signed an order late Wednesday for “X“ appoint such a representative or be blocked in Brazil.
In a publication in “X“ Elon Musk complained that Judge De Moraes was “a blatant criminal of the worst kind masquerading as a judge”.
In a separate post “Starlink“ accused the judge of secretly issuing an order without due process.
Earlier this month, the social network "X" said it was completely ending its operations in Brazil due to "censorship orders" of Judge Alessandre de Moraes.
The social platform complained that Judge De Moraes threatened one of the company's legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if he did not comply with a court order to remove certain content from the social network.
Moraesh ordered "X" to block certain accounts in connection with an investigation against the so-called "digital militias" who were accused of spreading fake news and messages of hate during the rule of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Moreover, Moraes opened an investigation into Elon Musk after the billionaire said he would reactivate accounts on "X" that had been blocked by court order.
Musk called Moraes "a complete disgrace to justice" and emphasized that his company would not be able to agree to the judge's demands for "secret censorship and disclosure of private information".