Musk and the Brazilian justice “broke down”, and X was brutally suspended and Starlink's bank account frozen

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the conflict between Elon Musk (Elon Musk) and a Brazilian Supreme Court judge affected the billionaire's company. The judge vowed to shut down X and freeze Starlink (Starlink)'s bank accounts in Latin America's largest economy.

Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes (Alexandre de Moraes) took the lead in cracking down on fake news and hate speech. Meanwhile, Musk and conservatives, including former President Jair Bolsonaro, said that judges overstepped their powers and undermined freedom of speech.

According to local news website G1, on August 18, Moras issued an order blocking the bank account of Musk's satellite internet provider. The decision was to force Musk's company to pay fines from social media platform X.

A person familiar with the matter in the Supreme Court confirmed the report. Starlink, an internet service company operated by SpaceX, said it has 250,000 customers in Brazil.

On Friday, Starlink Brazil Holdings Limited filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to lift the ban, saying that the internet business was not part of the case against Company x. Judge Cristiano Zanin later dismissed the appeal and continued to freeze the company's financial assets.

Musk lashed out at Moras in an article on X, calling him a criminal “disguised as a judge.”

Starlink confirmed in a series of posts on social media platform X that Moras' order froze the company's finances and prevented it from carrying out financial transactions in Brazil.

“This order is based on an unfounded decision that Starlink is responsible for the fine imposed on X — this is unconstitutional,” the company said. The company also said it intends to “resolve this issue through legal means.”

In a subsequent X post, Musk stated: “SpaceX will provide free internet service to Brazilian users until this matter is resolved.”

On Wednesday, Moras threatened to block the company's operations in Brazil if X does not appoint a legal representative in Brazil by Thursday evening. A few days ago, the platform said it would close its operations in Brazil, but it still provides services to around 20 million active users in the country.

Musk responded to this order with a photo apparently generated by artificial intelligence. The person in the photo looked like Moras in jail, and wrote in the post, “Someday, Alexander, this picture of you in prison will become a reality. Remember what I said.”

Approaching the deadline set by the judge, X's Global Government Affairs Account stated in a post on X that it would not abide by Moras' “illegal order.” X was operating normally in Brazil until early Friday afternoon.

The US Embassy in Brazil said in a statement that it is “closely monitoring developments” and that “the United States values freedom of speech and regards it as the cornerstone of a healthy democracy.”