Social media platform X will cease operations in Brazil after a bitter legal battle over rights and responsibilities, its owner Ilon Musk has announced.
The service will remain available to Brazilian users, AFP reports.
The closure is the apparent culmination of an ongoing legal battle between Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who said he was trying to combat the spread of dangerous misinformation online.
A post from X's global government affairs department said Moraes had "threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders."
Closing the office is necessary "to protect the safety of our employees" and "the responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes."
Moraes earlier ordered the suspension of several X accounts suspected of spreading misinformation, including those of supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to discredit the voting system in the 2022 presidential election, which he lost.
"Freedom of expression does not mean freedom of aggression," Moraes said. "It does not mean freedom to defend tyranny."
Moraes is at the forefront of the battle against misinformation in South America's largest country.
He is president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal, which last year declared Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office again because he had spread false information about the electoral system.
Musk and other critics say Moraes is part of a sweeping crackdown on free speech.
The CEO said that if X had followed Moraes' orders, "there's no way to explain our actions without shame."
In April, Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk. The order shows Moraes accusing Musk of "criminal instrumentalization" of the platform.
Moraes alleged that Musk had reactivated the banned accounts, and threatened the billionaire with a fine of about $20,000 for each instance.
"Social networks are not lawless lands," Moraes wrote.
Musk responded that while X was losing revenue from the Brazilian company, "principles are more important than profit." | BGNES
