Alexandre de Moraes, a notable justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), has issued a five-day time limit for the large social media platform X to justify its alleged disobedience to prior court orders on Monday. The deadline is due to lapse this coming Friday.
The setting of this deadline is part of an ongoing investigation by Brazilian authorities into groups they have termed “milícias digitais” or digital militias. There is suspicion these groups distributed misleading information and provoked criminal activities throughout ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. Justice Moraes is supervising the process to block certain accounts related to the investigation.
The profiles embroiled in this controversy include those of important bloggers who had alignments with the Bolsonaro administration. They are Allan dos Santos, Oswaldo Eustáquio, Senator Marcos do Val, and commentators Paulo Figueiredo Filho and Rodrigo Constantino. Internal investigators have discovered that these individuals have been utilizing digital militias operating beyond Brazil’s national borders to elude compliance with court orders.
In response to these allegations, representatives of X in Brazil have stated that the live broadcasting feature was deactivated for accounts and profiles subject to court-ordered blocks or suspensions. They additionally revealed that 161 accounts were blocked at the direction of the court and a further 65 were blocked following orders from the Superior Electoral Court.
The investigation has also drawn in Elon Musk, the executive director of X. He faces allegations of “criminal and fraudulent manipulation” and obstruction of justice. As such, Brazilian authorities have integrated him into their inquiry. Musk is accused of organizing a public misdirection campaign and of neglecting court orders to block specific accounts on his platform.
As first reported by the Jurist.