The attorney general in Minnesota, working with Governor Tim Walz, wrote a thank you message to Brazil on X just days after the South American country blocked the social media platform, sparking sharp criticism. From Elon Musk.
Keith Ellison's “Obrigado Brasil!” statement – which was posted in Portuguese on Monday – is also generating widespread criticism from conservatives on X.
“The Democratic Party — the same one that used to defend the First Amendment — now wants to destroy the First Amendment,” Musk wrote in a message sharing Ellison's post.
Brazil begins imposing restrictions According to the Associated Press, the company restricted access to X on Saturday after it missed a deadline to appoint a legal representative in Brazil — and anyone found trying to circumvent the block using a VPN could face daily fines of around $9,000.
“Elon Musk has shown his total disrespect for Brazil's sovereignty, and in particular its judiciary, and has set himself up as a true supranational entity, immune from the laws of every country,” the news agency quoted Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes as saying in a ruling on Friday.
Moraes reportedly also said in his ruling that Brazilian law requires internet service companies to have representatives in the country to be notified of local court decisions that require them to take action, such as removing illegal content or election-related misinformation.
X has been without a representative in Brazil since early August, the AP reports.
The social media platform said in a statement that the judge shut down X “simply because we were not complying with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all her bank accounts,” the company said. “Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not secretly comply with illegal orders.
The company further added, “To our users in Brazil and around the world, X is committed to defending your freedom of expression.”
