Elon Musk is doubling down on his fight with Brazilian authorities.
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't hold them accountable.
And then, after Brazil's Supreme Court ordered X blocked in the country, he suggested that Brazilians use software to circumvent the ban, despite the risk of large fines that a judge has threatened to impose for doing so.
Now he is defying the Brazilian government again. Starlink -- the satellite-internet service controlled by Musk that has 250,000 customers in Brazil -- told the country's telecom agency Sunday that it would not comply with orders to block X, the agency's president said.
The retort further escalated a dispute that has already had consequences for millions of Brazilians and for Musk's business -- and it suggested that Musk is not prepared to back down anytime soon.
The move also illustrated the sheer power of Musk and his business empire. Having built or bought leading companies with increasing control over how people connect and communicate, Musk is trying to leverage that influence to confront authorities and challenge laws he does not like.
Musk, X and SpaceX, the Musk-controlled company that runs Starlink, did not respond to requests for comment.
Alexandre de Moraes, the Brazilian Supreme Court justice who has led the action against X, froze Starlink's 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. De Moraes has accused X of spreading disinformation and hate speech.
On Sunday, Starlink informed Brazil's telecom agency, Anatel, that it would not block X until Brazilian officials released Starlink's frozen assets, Anatel President Carlos Baigorri said in an interview broadcast by Brazilian outlet Globo News.
Baigorri said he had received that response from Starlink's lawyers. "Let's wait and see if they formalize this in the records," he said.
Baigorri said he had informed de Moraes "so that he can take the measures he deems appropriate." Baigorri said his agency could revoke Starlink's license to operate in Brazil, which would "hypothetically" prevent the company from offering connections to its Brazilian customers.
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' antennas. That could leave fewer ways for regulators to try to disrupt service.
If regulators revoked Starlink's license and the company didn't halt its service, Anatel could seize Starlink's equipment at 23 ground stations it has in the country, which help improve the quality of its internet connections, Baigorri told Globo News.
Starlink has petitioned Brazil's Supreme Court to unblock its assets, but the court quickly dismissed the request. Starlink has said that it would provide free internet service to its customers in Brazil while it is blocked from making transactions.
Musk has called the financial sanctions on Starlink "absolutely illegal," saying that de Moraes was punishing shareholders of SpaceX for the actions of X, a separate company. Musk said he owned 40% of SpaceX. He controls a majority of voting shares, according to company filings.
Starlink has exploded in popularity in Brazil since it arrived in 2022. The service is particularly well suited to Brazil's vast rural areas and the Amazon rainforest. Communities across the Amazon, including remote Indigenous tribes, have used Starlink to log on with fast internet connections for the first time, transforming their way of life.
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Starlink has also been a major business success for Musk and SpaceX. The company dominates the satellite-internet market and has said that it has more than 3 million customers in 102 countries.
Musk flew to Brazil in 2022 to announce Starlink's arrival there alongside the country's conservative then-president, Jair Bolsonaro. Musk said Starlink would provide internet connections to 19,000 rural schools in Brazil. Bolsonaro gave Musk a medal and called him a "true legend of freedom."
Brazilian officials have since said that they have no record of Starlink providing internet to the schools. Baigorri, who helped approve Starlink's entry into Brazil, told The New York Times in February that he never knew of any actual plans to connect the schools. "I don't really think that it even existed," he said.
Musk on Sunday shared a post that lauded him for providing internet to 19,000 Brazilian schools.
By Sunday evening, X had been blocked across Brazil, aside from customers of Starlink.
The blackout is the result of a monthslong dispute between Musk and de Moraes. For years, the justice has been carrying out a sweeping campaign to 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.
Many of his orders have targeted prominent right-wing lawmakers and pundits, making de Moraes a top enemy of Bolsonaro and his supporters. In April, Musk began criticizing the judge in posts on X, calling him a dictator and accusing him of illegally censoring conservative voices.
In recent weeks, X began ignoring orders from de Moraes to block X accounts. De Moraes then threatened to arrest X's legal representative in Brazil. Musk responded by pulling X's team from the country.
On Friday, de 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.
On Saturday, X began publishing sealed orders from de Moraes that directed X to suspend certain accounts. Musk shared the posts and criticized de Moraes, adding "Karma's a b*tch bro."
—International New York Times