Brazil:

Elon Musk’s X has paid hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in fines in Brazil to settle a row with a decide who banned the platform in its greatest Latin American market over disinformation.

However the platform transferred the cash into the flawed account, Supreme Court docket Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the shutdown of X in August, mentioned Friday (October 4).

X, previously referred to as Twitter, racked up $5.2 million in fines for failing to adjust to a collection of court docket orders.

Moraes confirmed that the social community had paid the complete quantity however into a distinct account from the one on the court docket order and mentioned it had ordered that the funds be instantly redirected.

Moraes blocked X on August 31 after Musk refused to take away dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading disinformation and failed to call a brand new authorized consultant within the nation as ordered.

X, which had 22 million customers in Brazil earlier than Moraes blocked it, hopes that fee of the penalties will settle the dispute.

Final week it mentioned it had complied with the court docket’s different calls for, together with the appointment of a authorized consultant in Brazil.

The conflict between Musk and Moraes morphed right into a high-stakes battle which was intently adopted across the globe as a check of each freedom of expression and the struggle in opposition to disinformation.

A livid Musk hit out at Moraes over the ban calling him an “evil dictator” and dubbing him “Voldemort” after the villain from the “Harry Potter” collection.

However in current days he had been notably extra muted on the topic and X has appeared desperate to do no matter essential to have the ban lifted.

The platform had briefly resumed service in Brazil in mid-September after a technical workaround which it claimed was “inadvertent.”

Nevertheless it went again offline once more after Moraes threatened it with additional fines.

X’s struggle with Moraes started throughout Brazil’s 2022 presidential election marketing campaign, when Moraes ordered the corporate to deactivate accounts of followers of failed far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

The standoff escalated following assaults by Bolsonaro supporters on federal buildings in Brasilia after the inauguration of Bolsonaro’s leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as president in January 2023.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)