- The Brazilian court led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes has decided to unfreeze the accounts of X and Starlink.
- Soon after imposing a ban on X, the court also ordered a freeze on the assets of both companies to ensure that the fine that has been imposed on the companies is paid.
- Now that the court has taken out $3.3 million in fines, it no longer has a reason to hold on to the entities’ accounts.
The Brazilian court involved in the high-profile Elon Musk case has ordered to unfreeze X and Starlink’s accounts after collecting the due fine.
The court’s top justice, Alexandre de Moraes, along with a panel of 5 judges, found X to be repeatedly violating Brazilian laws – first, by refusing to remove some of the content and accounts that the court ordered it to, and then by not appointing a legal representative from the country. As a result of these violations, the court imposed a fine on the companies.
However, Elon Musk not only refused to pay those fines but also got into a fight with the court. To retaliate, the court ordered to freeze accounts of both Starlink and X.
Now, after taking out approximately $3.3 million, out of which $1.3 million came from X and $1.9 million from Starlink, the court has finally decided to unfreeze those accounts.
The only reason the court had taken control of the assets of those companies in the first place was to ensure the fine was paid.
Timeline of the Events
The Musk vs. Moraes issue has been ongoing for quite a few months. So, here’s a brief timeline of everything that led to this moment:
- Moraes ordered Musk to ban around 100 accounts on X for spreading misinformation and hate speech. Most of these accounts belonged to former president Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the last general election. Musk is a strong supporter of him.
- Musk then refused to comply, saying the court’s order violates freedom of speech. He also called Moraes a “dictator” and accused him of breaking Brazilian laws.
- In retaliation, Moraes launched an investigation against Musk for spreading fake information. He also ordered Musk to appoint a legal representative from the country (this is mandatory for all tech companies) within a given deadline or risk getting banned.
- Once again, Elon Musk refused to comply. He also claimed that the court threatened its existing legal representative with arrest if they didn’t comply with court orders.
- After Musk missed the deadline, the court imposed a nationwide ban on X (as previously warned by it) and seized the accounts of X and Starlink to ensure the fines were paid.
- While X was banned, all mobile service providers were asked to block access to X. Everyone complied except one – Starlink.
Throughout this chaos, Musk has not once shown any signs of compromise. It looks like he’s genuinely not afraid to go to war with Moraes, regardless of the consequences.
In the meantime, he has also been throwing insults at the judge left, right, and center on social media, even calling for Moraes’ impeachment.
Elon Musk is yet to respond to the news of the fines being taken out, which was undoubtedly with his consent. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what he does next.
