JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In Brazil, access to Elon Musk's social media network, X, has been blocked since Saturday after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country. Now, Brazil's supreme court has voted to uphold the order, so the platform remains mostly inaccessible on the web and mobile apps.
Reporter Julia Carneiro joins us from Rio de Janeiro. And Julia, how is this new decision today going to affect Elon Musk's business interests in Brazil?
JULIA CARNEIRO: Well, in essence, the suspension of X remains in the same way, Juana, but this is a move to give the court order more legitimacy because, at first, this came from an individual ruling by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and he was under huge scrutiny because of blocking access to a network that's so used in Brazil. So he submitted the order to a larger panel on the Supreme Court, and he was backed unanimously. So X will remain blocked until it names a legal representative in Brazil, which was why it was suspended in the first place, and it also has to pay almost $5 million of fines for ignoring orders to block user accounts. Because of these fines, the Supreme Court has also frozen the assets of Elon Musk's satellite company, Starlink, here in Brazil, which provides internet to a quarter of a million people in remote areas like the Amazon.
SUMMERS: As I understand it, X is incredibly popular in Brazil - around 20 million users - so I'd love to know more about what the reaction's been like to the standoff between Elon Musk and the court.
CARNEIRO: Well, it feels a lot more silent than usual. There's certainly less noise on social media, and many people are feeling disconnected from the world without having this platform they're used to going to to vent about what's happening. Brazil is the largest country in South America, and this is a huge market for X. It's used by roughly 10% of the population. And many of these users are now flocking to other rival platforms, like Threads or Bluesky.
Of course, everyone is talking about this. Some say the judge is going too far. Others are saying he's protecting democracy or Brazilian sovereignty. Even President Lula da Silva joined in, saying that Musk, like any citizen, has to respect the Brazilian laws and the higher court's orders and must not offend Brazilian authorities.
SUMMERS: Julia, for people who are perhaps not as familiar with this story as you are, can you just remind us - how did things get to this point? How did things between Elon Musk and the judge escalate to create the situation that we see today?
CARNEIRO: Well, this is very political, too, Juana. Justice Moraes is a very powerful and controversial figure in the Supreme Court, and he's been cracking down on misinformation on social media. And this has to do with the polarization in the country since the previous government of former president Jair Bolsonaro. His supporters were questioning the electoral system in Brazil in the previous election round, sort of setting the stage to say the elections were rigged when he did, in fact, lose in 2022.
So this led to lots of polarization on X and to claims of fake news being spread there, and Judge Moraes targeted lots of these user accounts and said X had to close these accounts. But Musk defied these orders, and he accuses de Moraes of censorship and of attacking free speech. So now, Musk has been embraced as a hero by Bolsonaro supporters, and he's even fueling calls for a protest against Justice Moraes, saying that Justice Moraes should be impeached. But ironically, what he says now on X can no longer be read by Brazilians, at least for now.
SUMMERS: That's reporter Julia Carneiro in Rio de Janeiro. Julia, thank you.
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