• Source:Reuters
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Brazil's telecoms regulator threatened to take action against Elon Musk's satellite broadband company Starlink, hours after the country's top court upheld a controversial decision to ban social network X. This development escalated tensions between Brazil and Musk's corporate empire. The suspension of X by Judge Alexandre de Moraes of the top court was also supported by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

The judge concluded that X permitted the dissemination of hate speech and lies concerning the nation's electronic voting system, which jeopardised Brazil's democracy. In an interview with CNN Brasil published on Monday, Lula stated, "The Brazilian judiciary may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk's far-right ideology just because he is rich."

READ: Brazil Supreme Court Upholds Order On Elon Musk's X Suspension

In an X post, Musk responded to the judge's previous decision to freeze Starlink's accounts in anticipation of using them to pay X's outstanding fines. He said he would seek a comparable seizure of Brazilian assets, but he did not specify how. On Monday, Starlink found itself targeted by Brazilian authorities once more for defying Moraes' directive to all internet providers to obstruct domestic access to X.

Revocation of Starlink's licence to operate in Brazil is one of the penalties for noncompliance, according to a senior official at telecom regulator Anatel. Commissioner Artur Coimbra of Anatel told Reuters that all Brazilian cellular operators are being inspected by the regulator to ensure that Musk's messaging network has been closed off.

According to Coimbra, Starlink is the sole business that has informed Anatel that it will not abide by the judge's decision. The telecom regulator confirmed to Reuters early on Monday that it had previously informed Anatel that it would not remove X from its service until the freeze on its Brazilian bank accounts was lifted. Last Monday, Moraes blocked Starlink's accounts because X didn't pay fines for disobeying court orders.

A Supreme Court panel earlier on Monday unanimously decided to maintain X's ban from the nation for disobeying a court order. Because X failed to designate a local legal representation as required by law and disregarded a deadline for compliance, Moraes last week decided that X should be suspended in Brazil.

READ: X Ban: Brazil's Top Court Judges To Vote Today On Shutting Down Musk's Platform

Justices Alexandre de Moraes was sided with by Justices Flavio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Carmen Lucia, and Luiz Fux. According to three of the panel's justices, the suspension might be lifted if the platform cooperated with earlier decisions. An inquiry for X's response to the panel's ruling was not immediately answered.

Following Moraes' ruling, X was taken down for the majority of Brazilians in the early hours of Saturday, while some people were still able to access it using VPNs and other methods. In addition, Moraes has threatened to fine people who use VPNs to access the social network 50,000 reais ($8,902.66) every day. It's not yet clear how credible this threat is.

According to Statista, with over 21.5 million users as of April, Brazil is X's sixth-largest market worldwide. Owners of a majority stake in Starlink, Elon Musk, and Moraes have been embroiled in a months-long spat after the social media giant contested orders to shut down accounts that investigators claimed were disseminating hatred and false information.

While supporters of Moraes view him as a champion of democracy, detractors charge him with oppressing politicians and businesspeople. According to Musk, Moraes shut down the X office in Brazil in August without designating a replacement representative in an attempt to restrict users, which led to the suspension.

Musk said, "Exactly," in response to a post on Monday that characterised the suspension as an assault on the rights of Brazilians and their freedom of speech. A member of the review panel, Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso, stated that dismissing attorneys in order to avoid following court orders "is a behaviour that would not be acceptable anywhere in the world." For the majority of users in Brazil, X was still unavailable.