Brazilian Supreme Court Investigates Elon Musk After Refusal to Block X Accounts
- Written by Deep Shikha Content Writer
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A Supreme Court judge in Brazil started an investigation into Musk on April 7. This happened after Musk announced he would unblock accounts on the social media platform X, which the judge had previously ordered to be blocked.
On April 6, X Corp received a court order from Justice Alexandre de Moraes, forcing it to block some well-known accounts on X. The court order also intends to stop X from sharing information about these blocked accounts. If it doesn’t follow the order, X could face fines of up to $20,000 per day, according to reports by The Associated Press .
X Corp’s Global Affairs team reported that the company is unaware of specific reasons for this order or which posts allegedly broke the law. The team says that these orders conflict with Brazil’s internet laws and the constitution and intends to challenge them legally wherever possible.
Elon Musk posted on X that this rule could cause the company to lose all its money and might even close its offices in Brazil. He mentioned that X would lift all the restrictions because they were unconstitutional. Musk also called for Moraes to either resign or face impeachment.
As reported by the Washington Post , the blocked accounts include at least nine people with far-right ideals, some of whom have close ties to far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. Court records say the people behind the blocked accounts were spreading misinformation and anti-democratic ideas in Brazil.
Forbes reported that since Musk took over, X has agreed to about 80% of government requests to remove content, which is actually more than the 50% they used to follow before he took over the company.
The clash between X and Brazilian authorities reveals deep tensions and uncertainties over free speech, digital rights, and how global online platforms can affect government control. It also poses crucial questions for the future of digital governance and the role of social media platforms in the political landscape.
X Announces New Bot and Spam Account Removal Effort
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Elon Musk and X, previously Twitter, announced on April 4 that they are starting to remove bots and spam accounts that have been on the platform since before Musk bought it in 2022. This move represents Musk’s latest attempt to address the ongoing issue of fake accounts that X has struggled with for years.
Tackling bots has been one of Musk’s primary focuses since before he bought Twitter. “X Corp will be tracing the people responsible and bringing the full force of the law to bear upon them,” Musk wrote in a statement on X .
X has previously made attempts to reduce the number of bots on its platform. The company introduced a “Not A Bot” program in the Philippines and New Zealand last year. This program charged new users a $1 yearly fee for protecting against bots and spammers, as mentioned in a blog post . However, the outcomes of this program remain unclear.
Removing bots has had its issues, with Elon Musk mentioning in January that an X bot mistakenly marked real accounts as spam or scams. He said they were fixing this problem. This is similar to his recent message, asking users to report to him or X engineers if real accounts are wrongly suspended during the bot purge.
While the precise count of bots on X is unknown, experts have noticed more bot activity during significant events such as the 2024 Super Bowl, the first Republican primary debate, and Tucker Carlson’s interview with Donald Trump.
Since Elon Musk took over, X has seen significant changes. Musk has brought back some accounts that were banned before. He says X will still take down illegal content, but now it’s more open to free speech, taking a less strict approach to moderating what is posted.
Studies have also shown increased hate speech on X since Musk took over. This followed after significant reductions in the platform’s trust and safety department during 2022 and 2023. Musk, however, argues that the visibility of such posts has decreased, suggesting that fewer people are exposed to them.
The ongoing efforts to remove bots and trolls from X are aimed at mitigating the presence and distribution of toxic content on the platform. Also, X is now giving free blue checks to some influential users without payment. Musk mentioned that accounts with many verified followers would also get extra Premium features for free.
