RIO DE JANEIRO –
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday threatened to shut down the local operations of X, formerly Twitter, unless its billionaire owner Elon Musk names an in-country legal representative within 24 hours.
The order from Justice Alexandre de Moraes is the latest development in an ongoing feud with Musk’s platform. The company has clashed with de Moraes earlier this year over free speech, accounts associated with the far-right and misinformation, and it claims to be a victim of censorship.
Earlier this month, X said it was removing all remaining Brazil staff in the country “effective immediately,” saying de Moraes had threatened its legal representative with arrest.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday notified X of de Moraes’ order in a reply to a post from the company’s global government affairs account on the social platform.
“In …