X (formerly Twitter) has closed its office in Brazil.
This comes after the social media company said that its legal representative in Brazil had been threatened with arrest by a supreme court judge. The country’s supreme court did not comment.
While the company’s Brazilian office had been closed, X said people in Brazil would still be able to use the platform.
A Brazilian judge, Alexandre de Moraes, said that X had to close a number of accounts that were under investigation for spreading misinformation. Most of the accounts were supportive of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro. De Moraes said that X would be fined about $20 000 a day for any account that X reactivated, and that X’s Brazilian legal representatives could also be legally liable.
De Moraes also opened an investigation into X’s owner, Elon Musk, on a number of charges, including obstruction of justice.
[Image: Palácio do Planalto – https://www.flickr.com/photos/51178866@N04/52290095117/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121864261 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/163370954@N08/33377877458]