Elon Musk’s Starlink won't block Elon Musk’s X in Brazil, as required by court order

Appeal panel upholds ban as Musk Xeets up a rage-storm

Brazil's Supreme Court has backed an earlier decision to force local carriers to block Elon Musk's social network, X, as the dispute between the billionaire and the South American nation widens.

The lengthy dispute centers on Musk's desire to unblock some X accounts that Brazil's courts have ordered be shut down for allegedly spreading misinformation. Musk – who claims to promote a maximal definition of free speech – has characterized those orders as the act of a malicious rogue judge.

The matter came to a head last week when judge Alexandre de Moraes threatened to block X in the country if the social network did not appoint a compliance officer so that X can answer to local authorities. A deadline for that appointment came and went, and on Saturday night X became unavailable in Brazil.

X also owes outstanding fines in Brazil, and judge Moraes also made an order to freeze assets owned by Starlink – the satellite broadband service controlled by Musk – so it can make good on those penalties.

The president of Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency, Carlos Baigorri, on Sunday told local media X had informed him of its intention to flout the court order.

Baigorri pointed out that cancelling Starlink's operating license is one remedy available to Brazilian authorities.

That hasn't happened. But a panel of five supreme court justices on Monday upheld judge Moraes's decision and orders to block X.

Musk's X output has continued to see him label Moraes – and anyone who calls for regulation of social media platforms – an enemy of free speech and/or a communist. In one post he quoted a tweet that labelled Moraes a "criminal."

He also pledged to fight the court order, Xeeting: "Unless the Brazilian government returns the illegally seized property of 𝕏 and SpaceX, we will seek reciprocal seizure of government assets too."

Meanwhile, at another Musk property …

In between all that political Xeeting, Musk revealed that Tesla's AI cluster has come online.

"This weekend, the @xAI team brought our Colossus 100k H100 training cluster online. From start to finish, it was done in 122 days," he Xeeted, before promising it will soon double in size.

"Excellent work by the team, Nvidia and our many partners/suppliers."

It seems only apt to end this story with news of a billionaire bro-fest. Musk's Xeet about the colossus cluster prompted a reply from Michael Dell, who wrote "It's amazing how fast this was done, and it's an honor for @DellTech to be part of this important AI training system. Congrats!" ®