After weeks of grandstanding about his defiance of a Brazilian Government order to censor certain users in the app, it looks like Elon Musk is going to comply with Brazilian officials’ demands after all, with X informing Brazilian authorities that it will now adhere to their requests late last week.
To recap, back in April, the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered X to comply with government orders to suppress certain accounts, which Brazilian leadership determined to have been spreading false reports and hate speech, mostly related to the 2022 election. X refused to action the request, saying that it was not legal (under Brazilian law), and also not within its new “free speech” aligned moderation approach. That led to a stand-off between the two, with X finally evacuating staff in Brazil earlier this month, under threat of arrest for local representatives, which then saw Brazil place a full ban on the app.
Which immediately cut off X access to 20 million users, but now, after 3 weeks of losses, X has decided to action the Brazilian requests after all.
As reported by The New York Times:
“In a court filing on Friday night, the company’s lawyers said that X had complied with orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court in the hopes that the court would lift a block on its site.
According to reports, X’s lawyers have agreed to block the accounts in question, while it’s also named a new official representative in the country, a requirement of its operation in the nation.
X now has five days to file official paperwork on the update, which could then see X re-activated in Brazil by the end of this week.
Which will be a relief for X’s marketing team, which is under pressure to increase revenue at the app. Losing access to such a significant market will only hamper their efforts on this front, while it’s also seen X lose a heap of user activity throughout the period.
X will still, however, have to pay its accumulated fines, which includes a recently announced penalty for continuing to offer the app in Brazil via VPN. Those fines will stretch into the millions, but getting X back online will obviously be worth more for the company in the long term.
Even if it’ll be seen as a back down from Musk himself.
As noted, Musk has repeatedly attacked Brazilian leadership for their “unjust” treatment of the platform, which included X setting up a specific profile in the app to “reveal the unlawful directives issued to X by (Brazilian Supreme Court Minister) Alexandre de Moraes.”
Musk used the Brazilian ban as a statement piece for his free speech push, admonishing Brazilian authorities, and calling on Brazilians to take action against them. But now, he’s taking the penalties on the chin, and adhering to their requests.
Which is not really surprising.
X and Musk did the same back in April, initially defying the Brazilian court’s request, then quietly adhering to it shortly after. In this sense, it’s as much about the appearance of taking a stand, as actually taking one, with Musk loudly and passionately arguing for free speech, above all else, then reversing that approach when the financial impacts stack up.
And that also makes sense. X is reportedly in a fairly dire financial situation, and even one of the richest people in the world needs to factor that into his thinking when actioning such.
But it does belie Musk’s public defiance somewhat, and his stated stance that he’ll uphold free speech, despite any potential losses he incurs as a result.
So should X be removing these accounts?
Well, the accounts have primarily been amplifying the lie that the 2022 election was “stolen”, which has been perpetuated by former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was voted out in the poll. The concern from Brazilian authorities is that amplifying such could lead to instability, and a lack of faith in the sitting government, so in some ways, that does make sense.
But in others, aligning with such requests may lead to more efforts to control discussion by government groups. So there is also logic in Musk’s approach in refusing it.
Still, Elon has a long history of gripes with the Brazilian Government, which nixed a lithium deal for Tesla after Bolsonaro was ousted. So it seems as much motivated by personal angst as philosophical disagreement here.
As such, I do think it’s also worth noting that X has complied with similar requests in Turkey, India, and Germany, all of which have a broader value to Musk and his companies.
Maybe, then, this is another example of Musk using his media profile to pressure governments to deal with him and his businesses.
