Social media platform X has received an inquiry from the U.S. House of Representatives “regarding actions taken in Brazil that were in violation of Brazilian law,” Elon Musk said on Wednesday in a post on X.
X was asked to suspend the accounts of “sitting members of the Brazilian parliament and many journalists,” Musk said in another post.
The U.S. House could not be immediately reached for comment. X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The U.S. House move comes after Brazil Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes opened an inquiry on Sunday into Musk after he said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked.
If X fails to comply with the order to block certain accounts the company will be fined $19,736.32 per day, Moraes said.
The standoff between Brazil and the billionaire started when Musk, the owner of X and a self-declared free speech absolutist, challenged the decision by Moraes ordering the blocking of certain accounts.
Musk has said X, formerly known as Twitter, would lift all the restrictions because they were unconstitutional and called on Moraes to resign.
“This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil,” Musk posted last week. “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.”
During Bolsonaro’s presidency, Musk’s satellite communication service Starlink was allowed in the country. In 2022, when the two met, Bolsonaro is said to have favoured Musk’s takeover of what was then Twitter. But times have changed and so has Brazil’s government, from right to left. President Lula da Silva’s government has now thrown its weight behind the judge. The country’s top law officer Attorney General Jorge Messias said: The country’s communications minister was more scathing: The big question is who will blink first.
Source: Reuters
