Written by Luciana Magalhaes
The Supreme Court of Brazil announced on Friday that lawyers representing the social media platform X failed to pay outstanding fines to the correct bank, leading to a delay in the decision on whether the tech firm can resume its services in the country.
The payment of fines, which X’s lawyers claimed to have been made correctly, is the final requirement set by the court to allow X to operate in Brazil once again.
X has been suspended in Brazil since late August, one of its key markets, due to non-compliance with court orders regarding hate speech moderation and failure to appoint a legal representative in the country as mandated by law.
Earlier on Friday, X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, submitted a new request to reinstate its services in Brazil, stating that all fines had been settled.
In response to the request, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed the payment to be transferred to the appropriate bank.
Furthermore, Moraes specified that after the fines are resolved, Brazil’s prosecutor general will provide his opinion on the recent petitions made by X’s legal team in Brazil, seeking to lift the platform’s ban in the country.
Following Moraes’ ruling on Friday, X’s lawyers once again sought authorization from the court to resume operations in Brazil, refuting claims that the fines were paid to the wrong account and questioning the necessity of consulting the prosecutor general before lifting the ban.
Despite complying with the court’s directives in recent weeks, including suspending certain accounts under investigation, X requested on September 26 to be allowed to resume operations in Brazil.
However, Moraes stipulated at that time that X must settle just over $5 million in outstanding fines before the suspension can be lifted.
On Friday, X’s legal team informed the Supreme Court that the company had paid 28.6 million reais ($5.24 million) in fines, as per a document reviewed by Reuters.
($1 = 5.4597 reais)