Brazilian comms regulator tries to force operators to block X, Starlink refuses

As we reported yesterday, de Moraes has banned Musk-owned social networking platform X in Brazil for refusing to go along with his censorship demands. As Musk subsequently confirmed in a tweet “They froze Starlink’s bank accounts too, despite Starlink being a separate company with different shareholders and having broken no laws and given no warning.”

Despite this unilateral punitive action against a company which seems guilty only of also being run by Musk, de Moraes still apparently expects Starlink to cooperate with him when it comes to blocking X at the service provider level. Brazilian comms regulator Anatel has been tasked with the job of forcing operators to comply but, in an interview with Reuters, Anatel commissioner Artur Coimbra said that Starlink told him it won’t play ball.

Once more seeking to fight fire with fire, Musk tweeted “Unless the Brazilian government returns the illegally seized property of 𝕏 and SpaceX, we will seek reciprocal seizure of government assets too. Hope Lula enjoys flying commercial.” His message included a link to a report that the US government has seized a private jet belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the inference being that the same could happen to Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who is supporting de Moraes in his actions against Musk’s companies.

As well as Lula, de Moraes also has the support of the rest of the supreme court Judges. But the FT reports that many prominent Brazilians, including the Speaker of the lower house of Congress and the Brazilian Bar Association, think he is going too far. Unilateral decrees from one judge would certainly seem to contravene the generally understood rules of legal due process. Even earlier this year, a poll found the majority of Brazilians thought de Moraes was overstepping.

It's hard to see a resolution to this battle of wills and it may well come down to which party is better able to mitigate the collateral damage caused by their actions. X and Starlink investors are presumably alarmed by the loss of this massive market but then who would want to invest in a country with such a cavalier attitude to the rule of law? It’s worth noting that Musk-owned Tesla appears to have no formal presence in Brazil.