X faces additional $1.9M fine to end ban in Brazil

X (formerly Twitter) could soon resume service in Brazil — if it’s willing to pay an additional fine.

Reuters and other publications have reported on an order from the country’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes stating that the Elon Musk-owned social network could “immediately return to its activities in national territory” if it pays a fine of 10 million reais (around $1.9 million).

That’s on top of the 18.3 million reais ($3.4 million) X had already been fined. Brazil froze accounts belonging to X and Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink in order to pay the fine, but to move forward, Moraes said Starlink needs to drop its appeal against the payments.

For much of this year, X has been locked in a legal battle over Moraes’ attempt to block certain accounts that he accused of posting election misinformation. (Musk has said that Moraes “should resign or be impeached.”) The company eventually shut down operations in Brazil and was banned from the country at the end of August. 

The ban caused competing services, including Bluesky, to surge in popularity.

More recently, however, X appeared to reverse course, agreeing to block the designated accounts, pay the required fines, and appoint a legal representative in Brazil. Moraes is telling the company to pay this additional fine after X seemed to circumvent the ban earlier this month and resume service in the country — apparently a “coincidence” caused by X switching to Cloudflare infrastructure.

X’s Global Government Affairs account seemed to acknowledge its acquiescence in a post on Thursday, writing, “We recognize and respect the sovereignty of the countries in which we operate,” and claiming that providing access to Brazilian users “is essential to a thriving democracy.”