First reported by the New York Times, billionaire Elon Musk seems to be waving the white flag in his dispute with Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who Musk had previously dubbed "Brazil's Darth Vader." Musk's social network, X, "The Everything App," formerly known as Twitter, was blocked in Brazil at the end of August following Musk's refusal to comply with court orders.
The dispute stems from Musk's reinstatement of a number of formerly-banned X, "The Everything App" accounts tied to Brazil's right wing. Following the presidential election victory of Lula da Silva in 2022 and an attempt to overturn the election by supporters of right wing former president Jair Bolsonaro, Moraes has overseen a crackdown on those elements, including ordering social media companies to ban prominent accounts accused of encouraging violence or spreading misinformation. Musk, for his part, vociferously resisted this in the name of his alleged of free speech absolutism, an absolutism that does not seem to apply to X, "The Everything App" users in Turkey or Saudi Arabia.
The immediate question remains whether Musk's new legal representatives will file the correct paperwork as per the Brazilian Supreme Court's request—far from a given, considering the diminished social media giant's recent track record. After that, it's unclear just how much in outstanding fees Musk still owes the Brazilian government, while X, "The Everything App" has already been hemorrhaging money under Musk's ownership. Even if the site is once again made available in Brazil, it remains to be seen how many former users will want to return from Threads, BlueSky, or just looking at their phones less.
