Brazilians can tweet again as X complies with court orders

Elon Musk’s free speech crusade in Brazil has ended in defeat. X paid a $5.1 million fine, blocked specified accounts, appointed a legal representative, and complied with other court orders. Now, Brazilians can tweet again.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who Musk previously called “the dictator of Brazil,” who has President Lula “on a leash,” lifted the ban on social media platform X.

The beef between Musk and Moraes began early this year when X announced that it had been forced by court decisions to block certain popular accounts in Brazil. At first, X challenged the blocking orders, claiming that the people of Brazil were entitled to freedom of speech.

Brazil asked X to block some far-right accounts for the dissemination of fake news as part of the investigation into former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

X's operations have been suspended since August 30th due to repeated non-compliance with the court’s decisions. Some users bypassed the restrictions using VPNs, while many switched to alternative platforms such as Bluesky.

However, Musk quietly backed down in September.

“On September 27th, X proved that it had fully complied with two conditions for resuming its activities: blocking profiles that disseminated false information and appointing a legal representative in the country, a requirement under Brazilian law for foreign companies to operate in the country. After that, it paid the fines owed in full, which totaled R$28.6 million ($5.17 million),” the Brazilian court decision reads.

The Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) will take steps to resume the platform's service in the country.

Brazil is one of the largest markets for X, with an estimated 20 million users.

Now X says it is “proud to return to Brazil.”

“Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate,” the company tweeted.