Brazil Supreme Court Justice Opens Inquiry into Elon Musk

Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes initiated an investigation of Elon Musk, the owner and CTO of X (formerly Twitter). 

The inquiry is about the possible obstruction of justice by Musk. Over the weekend, Musk said that he would defy the court’s orders to restrict or suspend some accounts on the platform. 

The Judge ordered the inclusion of Elon Musk into a broader inquiry into ‘digital militias’. It is a term used for people accused of spreading misinformation online. 

This order comes right after Elon Musk posted about this on his X account which has a massive 180 million followers. 

Here is what Musk wrote about it. 

“We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees, and cut off access to Brazil. As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”

And Musk also said some things about the judge that has issued the inquiry into him. He further provoked the judge by asking for his resignation or impeachment. He also made some unsupported claims that Judge himself had broken the law in Brazil. 

“This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees, and cut off access to X in Brazil,”

Both the government and X have not disclosed the unnamed accounts that were asked to be blocked or banned. 

X Corp has said in a statement that it had been “forced by court decisions” to block certain popular accounts in Brazil. It also said that the company was threatened with daily fines If it failed to comply.