Elon Musk's social media company X has announced it will immediately shut its office in Brazil over what it called censorship orders tied to a judicial probe into far-right "digital militias" accused of spreading dangerous disinformation and hate speech on the platform.
X said that Brazilian Judge Alexandre de Moraes threatened to have a company lawyer arrested if it didn't comply with an order to remove some content, Reuters reported.
"To protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately," X said in a statement Saturday.
The platform, however, will remain accessible to users in Brazil, it said.
Brazil's Supreme Court, which includes Moraes, declined to comment.
It wouldn't confirm or deny the authenticity of a document X said was order signed by Moraes that threatened daily fines of $3,653 and an arrest warrant against its lawyer Rachel Nova Conceicao.
Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist," paid $44 billion to buy the company formerly known as Twitter in October 2022 and later reinstated the accounts of banned users including former President Donald Trump and some neo-Nazis.
He called Moraes an "utter disgrace to justice" on Saturday, and said the company wouldn't comply with his "secret censorship and private information handover demands," according to Reuters.
Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts as he investigated so-called digital militias that operated on the site while far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro was in power.
Musk called the orders unconstitutional and publicly demanded the resignation of Moraes, who's also leading a probe into an alleged coup attempt by Bolsonaro.
