Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is currently unavailable in Brazil after Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the site be banned in the country on Friday. The decision came after the X owner Elon Musk, who has called De Moraes “a dictator and a fraud,” systematically disobeyed a Brazilian court ordering him to place a legal representative for the company.

The legal battle started earlier this month when De Moraes requested X block some users. These accounts were accused of disseminating fake news and exposing personal data, as well as threatening police officers and their families. Some of them belong to fugitives accused of participating in the January 2023 attack on government buildings — and with alleged links to officials from the Bolsonaro administration — while others belong to federal lawmakers.

X failed to comply and Musk even announced the closure of all company offices in Brazil.

According to De Moraes’ 51-page ruling, X wants to “establish an environment of total impunity and ‘lawless land’ on Brazilian social media.” The ruling also said “extremist groups and digital militias” are using the platform to disseminate “Nazi, racist, fascist, hateful, and anti-democratic rhetoric.”

The incident has made headlines around the world and even caused President Lula Da Silva to chime in. He accused Musk of disrespecting Brazil’s institutions and feeling authorized to do so “because he has a lot of money.” 

“Who does he think he is? He has to respect the decision of the Court. He has to accept the rules of this country,” Da Silva said in an interview with radio MaisPB. “Any citizen, from any part of the world, that has investments in Brazil, is subordinated to the Brazilian Constitution and its laws.”

De Moraes insisted that the situation poses “a very serious risk” to the municipal elections scheduled for October, citing the 2023 incident following Bolsonaro’s defeat in the presidential election as evidence. On January 8 of last year,  a mob of the former president’s supporters attacked three federal government buildings in Brasilia. The protestors claimed that there had been electoral fraud, citing online fake news. The head of Argentine President Javier Milei’s digital campaign, Fernando Cerimedo, was named as a co-conspirator in the attack, which De Moraes has called an attempted coup.

According to De Moraes, Elon Musk intends to once again massively disseminate disinformation, hate speech, and attacks on the rule of law, “violating the free choice of the electorate, by keeping voters away from real and correct information.”

In addition to banning X in the country, De Moraes imposed a R$50,000 (US$8,900) fine on people who try to access the platform from Brazil using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a technology capable of “disguising” the location of a network.

Argentine President Javier Milei condemned the ban by sharing a post made by his Press Secretary, Javier Lanari. “Now you can understand why Lula never condemned the dictator Maduro,” the post read, referencing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. “None of them tolerate freedom of speech.” 

Da Silva, however, has not recognized Maduro’s self-proclaimed victory in this year’s controversial presidential elections.

Musk defended his actions, calling De Moraes “De Voldemort” (in reference to the villain of the Harry Potter franchise), and saying that he is “crushing the people’s right to free speech.” He also called Brazil’s government an “oppressive regime.”

“We will begin publishing the long list of De Moraes’ crimes, along with the specific Brazilian laws that he broke,” Musk said in a post on X.