Musk, X, Starlink And Brazil's Supreme Court: A Tale Of Hypocrisy, Legal Ignorance And False Promises.
Has Musk finally realised he doesn't have a leg to stand on?
I have already covered X/Twitter being banned from Brazil for Musk’s idiocracy and why said banning isn’t illegal or against free speech (read here). But, this tale of a misinformed billionaire man-child just took a hilarious turn. You see, Musk thought he could operate above the law, then quickly realised that was a terrible idea. Who knew?
This all started on Monday when the Brazilian Supreme Court voted to uphold the banning of X/Twitter. This ban also included fines for anyone using a VPN to access X/Twitter and forced internet service providers in the country to implement an “immediate, complete and comprehensive” ban of X or face legal and financial ramifications. Musk’s response to this was understandably hypocritical and stupid; again, for coverage on that, read my previous article here.
But Musk hatched a plan to bypass this ban by allowing Starlink users to access Twitter in defiance of the court order. Musk thought he would be able to do this, as the “order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied — unconstitutionally — against.” Just a reminder, the hate speech and misinformation on X/Twitter isn’t protected speech in Brazil (or the US, or anywhere in the EU), and the only reason X/Twitter was banned was because Musk refused to engage in their legal processing. As such, this reasoning is demonstrably wrong.
As such, the court’s Brazilian bank accounts were frozen, preventing Starlink from processing any transactions from the country. Again, this is completely legal, and rightfully so. X/Twitter and Starlink were effectively publishing deeply damaging, unprotected forms of hate speech.
Starlink posted on X/Twitter that it had initiated legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court, explaining the “gross illegality” of its orders to freeze its accounts. They added that the judge’s “recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution.” Which again, let’s be clear here, it didn’t at all in no way, shape or form. A court document for this Tuesday showed that Starlink missed the deadline to present a new appeal against the decision to freeze its accounts, and as such, the account freeze went unchanged. After this, Starlink has so little to stand on here that legal experts have said that they aren’t sure what legal instruments they would use to request the overturn of the freezing.
So, Musk promised Starlink would continue to defy the court order and would provide Brazilians free Starlink internet in defiance.
Now, such a move would cost Musk dearly! Starlink costs the equivalent of $32.57 a month in Brazil (far less than in the US), and they have roughly 250,000 customers in the country. As such, providing this internet for free would cost Musk the equivalent of $8,142,500 per month. However, the Brazilian court can also levy fines against Starlink for millions of dollars for defying the court order, and users of Starlink could also face huge fines for using the service to access X/Twitter. As such, the real monthly cost could be way higher, and many users likely won’t want to use Starlink as it opens them up to fines.
So Musk’s plan could cost Starlink over a billion dollars a year and drive away its customer base in the country anyway. Moreover, Starlink’s’ international reputation would be severely tarnished, as many governments, institutions and private individuals lose faith that the company will act legally, potentially costing it a huge amount down the line.
But it seems Musk finally realised that not only is the law not on his side, but that this is an utterly stupid business decision, so he backtracked and made Starlink comply with the court order. Though, not without complaining. Starlink posted on X/Twitter, “Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing of our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil.”
What is the moral of the story? Musk’s promises mean nothing; even misinformed, egotistic billionaires can’t act above the law or badly reinterpret a constitution without repercussion. I’d like to say that Musk has learned his lesson, and will ensure to operate X/Twitter and his other businesses to the letter of the law. Sadly, I highly doubt that.
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Sources: The Independent, Vanguard, Fortune, Reuters, Starlink, The Guardian