X has initiated legal proceedings for its restoration in Brazil after the Supreme Court imposed a nationwide ban on the platform for failing to comply with its order, according to a report by Reuters.
The company, formerly known as Twitter, is now complying with the order it initially refused. The Brazilian Supreme Court had directed X to name a new legal representative after the company’s former representative left the country.
The development came on Friday after X named Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as its new legal representative and submitted her name to the Supreme Court. X has been facing an official investigation into its content moderation practices. The platform, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, was accused of spreading misinformation and hate in April.
On Saturday, the court gave X five days to turn in commercial registries and other documents related to the designation of its new legal representative. Last week, X had confirmed that it was working on resuming its operations in the country after an update to its communications network “inadvertently” made the platform accessible to many users again. Subsequently, the court warned X not to circumvent the ban.
The accusations pertaining to misinformation and online hate against X were followed by a flaring feud between Musk and Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, whom Musk called “an evil dictator” and “a tyrant”. X’s former legal representative was forced to leave the country after her banks accounts were frozen, according to the allegations levelled against the Brazilian authorities by X. The Brazilian law requires tech companies to have a representative in the country to address official probes.
Following the expiration of the deadline for X to name a new legal representative, Judge de Moraes ordered a complete blockage of X in the country. Musk, who kept lambasting the judge, told users they could access the platform via virtual private networks (VPNs). The Supreme Court, however, penalised the use of VPNs too, with a fine of up to $9,000 a day for those who would be found accessing the platform through VPNs.
