Brazil Court Fines X $1.4 Million for Data Violation
Brazil court fines X $1.4M for failing to provide data in a court case. Learn more about the Brazilian court’s decision and X's ongoing legal battles.
Brazil court fined X $1.4 million, strict action on violation of orders
Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes, issued a landmark ruling on Wednesday against social media platform X (formerly Twitter), ordering it to pay a fine of 8.1 million Brazilian reais (approximately US$1.4 million) after X refused to hand over registration data related to Alan dos Santos’ profile despite a court order.
X refused to share the data
De Moraes ordered in July 2024 that X and Meta should take action to block Santos’ account, ban him and provide his data. X complied with the order and blocked the account, but claimed that it did not have the data because it was not collected and the user had no technical connection to Brazil.
However, the judge rejected this argument. Subsequently, X was fined 100,000 Brazilian reais (around US$17,500) per day for failing to provide the data through August 2024. By October, the fine had risen to 8.1 million reais.
X had appealed against the fine but later informed the court that it was willing to pay the fine. In its ruling on Wednesday, the court ordered the company to pay the full amount immediately. However, it is not clear whether X provided the registration data as requested by the court.
Last year, de Moraes took another step against X when the company planned to lay off all of its employees in Brazil. He then threatened to arrest X’s legal representative in the country. Brazilian law requires foreign companies to appoint a local legal representative in the country so they can receive court rulings and take prompt action, such as deleting accounts.
Controversy between Musk and Judge de Moraes
It is worth noting that there has been a lot of controversy between social media owner Elon Musk and Judge de Moraes, a critic of former President Bolsonaro, regarding freedom of expression, right-wing accounts and misinformation. Musk had called de Moraes an enemy and a criminal of freedom of expression. Despite this, de Moraes’ decisions have been repeatedly upheld by his colleagues, including orders for nationwide shutdowns and fines of X.