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Elon Musk is doubling down on his fight with the Brazilian authorities.<\/p>\n
For weeks, the billionaire has refused to comply with Brazilian court orders to suspend certain accounts on his social network, X. He ignored fines and then fired X employees in Brazil so courts couldn\u2019t hold them accountable. And then, after Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court\u00a0ordered X blocked<\/a>\u00a0in the country, he\u00a0suggested<\/a>\u00a0that Brazilians use software to circumvent the ban, despite the risk of large fines that a judge has threatened to impose for doing so.<\/p>\n Now he is defying the Brazilian government again. Starlink \u2014 the satellite-internet service controlled by Mr. Musk that has 250,000 customers in Brazil \u2014 told the country\u2019s telecom agency on Sunday that it would not comply with orders to block X, the agency\u2019s president said.<\/p>\n The retort further escalated a dispute that has already had\u00a0consequences for millions of Brazilians<\/a>\u00a0and for Mr. Musk\u2019s business \u2014 and it suggested that Mr. Musk is not prepared to back down anytime soon.<\/p>\n The move also illustrated the sheer power of Mr. Musk and his business empire. Having built or bought leading companies with increasing control over how people connect and communicate, Mr. Musk is trying to leverage that influence to confront authorities and challenge laws he does not like.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk, X and SpaceX, the Musk-controlled company that runs Starlink, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Alexandre de Moraes<\/a>, the Brazilian Supreme Court justice who has led the action against X, froze Starlink\u2019s assets in Brazil last week and blocked it from carrying out transactions in the country. He did so to try to collect on more than $3 million in fines against X for ignoring his orders to suspend accounts. Justice Moraes has accused X of spreading disinformation and hate speech.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Starlink informed Brazil\u2019s telecom agency, Anatel, that it would not block X until Brazilian officials released Starlink\u2019s frozen assets, Anatel\u2019s president, Carlos Baigorri, said in an interview\u00a0broadcast by the Brazilian outlet Globo News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Baigorri said he had received that response from Starlink\u2019s lawyers. \u201cLet\u2019s wait and see if they formalize this in the records,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Baigorri said he had informed Justice Moraes \u201cso that he can take the measures he deems appropriate.\u201d Mr. Baigorri said his agency could revoke Starlink\u2019s license to operate in Brazil, which would \u201chypothetically\u201d prevent the company from offering connections to its Brazilian customers.<\/p>\n Yet Starlink could try to continue to provide service in Brazil without a license, though that would violate Brazilian law. Unlike traditional internet providers, which typically work with a series of internet-infrastructure companies to deliver connections, Starlink essentially connects its satellites directly to customers\u2019 antennas. That could leave fewer ways for regulators to try to disrupt service.<\/p>\n If regulators revoked Starlink\u2019s license and the company didn\u2019t halt its service, Anatel could seize Starlink\u2019s equipment at 23 ground stations it has in the country, which help improve the quality of its internet connections, Mr. Baigorri told Globo News.<\/p>\n Starlink has petitioned Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court to unblock its assets, but the court quickly\u00a0dismissed the request<\/a>. Starlink has said that it would provide free internet service to its customers in Brazil while it is blocked from making transactions.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk has\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0the financial sanctions on Starlink \u201cabsolutely illegal,\u201d saying that Justice Moraes was punishing shareholders of SpaceX for the actions of X, a separate company. Mr. Musk said he owned 40 percent of SpaceX. He controls a majority of voting shares, according to company filings.<\/p>\n Starlink has exploded in popularity in Brazil since it arrived in 2022. The service is particularly well suited to Brazil\u2019s vast rural areas and the Amazon rainforest. Communities across the Amazon,\u00a0including remote Indigenous tribes<\/a>, have used Starlink to log on with fast internet connections for the first time, transforming their way of life.<\/p>\n Starlink has also been a major business success for Mr. Musk and SpaceX. The company dominates the satellite-internet market and has said that it has more than three million customers in 102 countries.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk flew to Brazil in 2022 to announce Starlink\u2019s arrival there alongside the country\u2019s conservative then-president, Jair Bolsonaro. Mr. Musk said Starlink would provide internet connections to 19,000 rural schools in Brazil. Mr. Bolsonaro gave Mr. Musk a medal and called him a \u201ctrue legend of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Brazilian officials have since said that\u00a0they have no record<\/a>\u00a0of Starlink providing internet to the schools. Mr. Baigorri, who helped approve Starlink\u2019s entry into Brazil, told The Times in February that he never knew of any actual plans to connect the schools. \u201cI don\u2019t really think that it even existed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk on Sunday shared a post that lauded him for providing internet to 19,000 Brazilian schools.<\/p>\n By Sunday evening,\u00a0X had been blocked across Brazil<\/a>, aside from customers of Starlink.<\/p>\n The blackout is the result of a monthslong dispute between Mr. Musk and Justice Moraes. For years, the justice has been\u00a0carrying out a sweeping campaign<\/a>\u00a0to clean up the Brazilian internet, in part by ordering social networks to suspend accounts that he says spread disinformation, hate speech or threats to democracy. He has often issued those orders under seal and with no explanation for why an account should be taken down, according to leaked copies of the orders.<\/p>\n Many of his orders have targeted prominent right-wing lawmakers and pundits, making Justice Moraes a top enemy of Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters. In April, Mr. Musk\u00a0began criticizing the judge<\/a>\u00a0in posts on X, calling him a dictator and accusing him of illegally censoring conservative voices.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, X began ignoring orders from Justice Moraes to block X accounts. Justice Moraes then threatened to arrest X\u2019s legal representative in Brazil. Mr. Musk responded by pulling X\u2019s team from the country.<\/p>\n On Friday, Justice Moraes ordered Anatel to block X across the nation of 200 million because the company lacked a physical presence in Brazil. He also said that people in Brazil who use privacy software called virtual private networks, or VPNs, to circumvent the blackout and use X could face fines of nearly $9,000 a day, more than what the average Brazilian earns a year.<\/p>\n On Saturday, X began publishing sealed orders from Justice Moraes that directed X to suspend certain accounts. Mr. Musk shared the posts and criticized Justice Moraes,\u00a0adding<\/a>\u00a0\u201cKarma\u2019s a b*tch bro.\u201d<\/p>\n The post\u00a0Musk\u2019s Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil\u00a0<\/a>appeared first on\u00a0New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n