São Paulo, Brazil – The Brazilian Supreme Court issued a summons on Wednesday to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), demanding that he appoint a new legal representative for the platform in the country within 24 hours, under the threat of suspending X throughout Brazil.
Last week, Musk closed X’s office in Brazil after refusing to comply with multiple Supreme Court orders to suspend posts and profiles that spread fake news and hate speech. As a result, since August 18, the Supreme Court has been requesting that Musk appoint a new legal representative in Brazil to be contacted and summoned in lawsuits.
Since Musk did not respond, this time the court set a 24-hour deadline for compliance with the order and has already decided that if Musk does not appoint a new legal representative for X by Thursday, the platform will be suspended in Brazil.
The summons was made via the Supreme Court’s own profile on X in response to a post by Musk, precisely because the social media no longer has a representative in Brazil to receive the document. The court also released a statement on its website confirming the summons and informing that X’s attorney was also notified.
As with all orders to block profiles on X, the summons to Musk was signed by Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has been highly criticized by the billionaire for months. Musk complains about Moraes’ decisions, which he believes violate freedom of speech and constitute censorship.
Musk spent days attacking Moraes on his X profile and even stated that Brazil was living under a “dictatorship.” He has not yet commented on the judge’s latest decision, so it is still unclear whether Twitter will be taken offline or not.
