The Supreme Court in Brazil, on Friday, ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension” of operations by X, formerly known as Twitter, in the country, TheGuardian reports.
The ban of the social media platform followed its failure to meet a 24-hour deadline which elapsed at 8.07 p.m. local time on Thursday (0.07 a.m. BST on Friday), to appoint a legal representative in the country.
About an hour after the deadline, the owner of X, Elon Musk, announced that the social media app would not comply with the directive, criticising the country of censorship.
Giving the order, the judge, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been in a long-running row with Mr Musk, said the ban will remain “until all court orders are complied with, fines are duly paid, and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country”.
The judge, therefore, ordered the country’s National Telecommunications Agency to enforce the decision within 24 hours, adding that the agency must thereafter, deliver the order to the over 20,000 broadband internet providers in the country, who must all also block X.
Mr Moraes also ordered Apple and Google to “implement technological barriers to prevent the use of the X app by users of the iOS and Android systems” and to block the use of VPNs.
He, therefore, imposed a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,800) on individuals and companies that attempt to use X via VPN.
