Starlink "Complies with Brazil X Block"... Musk Ultimately Backs Down

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who had been in conflict with the Brazilian Supreme Court over the operation of the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), has ultimately taken a step back.

According to Bloomberg on the 3rd (local time), Starlink, the satellite internet service of Musk's space company SpaceX, stated through X that "despite Starlink being subjected to illegal treatment such as asset freezing, it is complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil."

Elon Musk Tesla CEO [Photo by Yonhap News]

This reverses the previous stance of not complying with the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court's order to block X.

Earlier, Supreme Court Justice Alessandri Zimorais ordered X to block accounts of the so-called 'digital militias' accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during former President Jair Bolsonaro's administration. However, X did not comply with the order for months, claiming such actions were censorship.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court instructed Anatel, the broadcasting and telecommunications regulatory authority, to impose fines for blocking X and for circumventing X access via virtual private networks (VPNs). Starlink's accounts were also frozen.

The day before, Anatel announced that among telecommunications and internet service providers in Brazil, only Starlink had expressed its intention not to comply with the Supreme Court's decision regarding access to X. There were also prospects that authorities might revoke Starlink's operating license in Brazil if the situation persisted.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.