Brazil’s Supreme Court announced it would lift the ban on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
In his ruling, Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the “immediate reinstatement” of X’s activities in the country after he paid a hefty fine and blocked accounts accused of spreading false information. He said he approved it.
In a statement, the site said it had agreed to pay a total fine of 28 million reais ($5.1 million, £3.8 million) and appoint a local representative as required by Brazilian law.
Moraes blocked access to the platform owned by Elon Musk after the platform refused to ban several profiles the government determined were spreading misinformation about Brazil’s 2022 presidential election. I was doing it.
Brazil’s communications watchdog, Anatel, has been told to resume service to its more than 20 million users in the country within 24 hours.
After months of defying court orders, Musk fired the company’s Brazilian staff and closed X’s offices in Brazil in late August.
“The decision to close the X office in Brazil was a difficult one,” Musk, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, wrote at the time.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” had called Judge Moraes’ move to ban dozens of accounts an abuse of power and a violation of free speech.
A few days later, Judge Moraes ordered the entire platform to be blocked nationwide.
Demand for VPNs (virtual proxy networks) in Brazil has skyrocketed as many users have switched to alternative sites such as Bluesky.
But in September, the platforms made an apparent U-turn and started complying with the court order.
“I’m proud to be able to go back to Brazil,” Mr. X said on Tuesday.
“Providing tens of millions of Brazilians with access to our essential platform has been paramount throughout this process,” the government affairs team said in a statement.
It now appears that X has complied with all of the judge’s requests to lift the ban.
Brazil is one of the largest markets in the world for the platform, and the largest in Latin America, with an estimated 22 million users.
