Brazilian Supreme Court threatens to drag the plug on X

Brazil’s top court ordered X to pick a legal representative by Thursday or risk suspension in the country.

The court shared a screenshot of its summons on the social media platform Wednesday, responding to a post from X’s Global Government Affairs account. In the document, the court said companies that don’t adhere to Brazilian law risk having their activities suspended and gave the company 24 hours to name a legal representative.

“In case of noncompliance with the determination, the decision could bring about suspension of the social media network’s activities in Brazil,” the court wrote.

Soon after receiving the notice, X owner Elon Musk said Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had “broken the laws he swore to uphold.”

The order comes just weeks after X announced it would close its operations in Brazil, though the site remained available there. X decided to close its Brazilian offices after receiving what it called “censorship orders” from Mr. Moraes. The company also alleges that the justice threatened to block certain X content.

Earlier this year, Mr. Moraes ordered X to block some accounts and posts while he investigated the spread of what he called misinformation related to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Mr. Musk and X refused to censor the content, unblocking several accounts that Mr. Moraes ordered censored.