Brazil wins: Starlink agrees to block X in the country

Satellite provider Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, said it still intends to comply with the Brazilian Supreme Court’s order to block access to social network X in the country, although the operator previously told the country’s regulator that it refused to do so.

Image source: Mariia Shalabaieva / unsplash.com

Starlink found itself hostage to the confrontation between Musk and the Brazilian authorities: Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes previously decided to freeze the local accounts of the satellite operator in order to use them to pay fines imposed on the social network X, which also belongs to Musk. “Despite the illegal actions against Starlink in blocking our assets, we will comply with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” the operator says on its social media page. In Brazil, Starlink has more than 200,000 customers.

Earlier, Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel said Starlink had informed it of its intention to disobey Moraes’ order to block access to X on its network. But the agency subsequently stated that Starlink backed down and informed the regulator that it would block it in the coming hours – the process had already begun. Last week, Judge Moraes ordered all telecom operators in the country to block access to social network X because it does not have a legal representative in the country; the decision was subsequently upheld by a panel of judges of the Supreme Court.

Starlink said it had initiated legal proceedings in Brazil’s Supreme Court, calling it “blatantly illegal” to freeze its accounts and ban financial transactions in the country. The company, however, missed the deadline to file a new appeal against the court’s decision to freeze the accounts, and it is not yet clear what legal tool it will use to demand that the decision be overturned.

The incident erupted when Moraes demanded that social network X block accounts involved in an investigation into posts that distort the news agenda and incite hatred. Musk regarded this order as an attempt at censorship and closed the company’s offices in Brazil, but the social network continued to operate in the country until Moraes decided to block it and provided for high fines for attempts by users to circumvent it.