Starlink Satellite Network Refuses to Block X/Twitter in Brazil Unless Court Unfreezes Its Bank Accounts

The conflict between Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Demórais continues, as Demórais has ordered Brazilian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block Elon Musk's social media site X/Twitter. He also warned users that using tools like VPNs to access the site could result in fines of 50,000 Brazilian Reais (approximately $8,900) per day.

Justice Demórais also issued a $3 million fine to X/Twitter. However, since Elon Musk has already ceased the platform's operations in Brazil, Demórais ordered the freezing of the bank accounts belonging to Musk's Starlink satellite internet service.

Given the court's order, most Brazilian ISPs have already blocked X/Twitter. Starlink, on the other hand, has not complied and stated it will not do so unless the court unfreezes its bank accounts, meaning it refuses to block X/Twitter.

Although both X and Starlink are under Elon Musk's umbrella, they are completely different business entities. Legally, Starlink should comply with the court's order to block X, but Demórais's move to freeze Starlink's accounts to extract the $3 million fine seems unconventional since they are separate entities. Therefore, Starlink is not following the court order to block X, though Starlink has very few users in Brazil, so the impact of blocking or not is minimal.

Meanwhile, most Brazilian users are currently unable to access the X platform, leading them to migrate to another social media platform, BlueSky, which has gained millions of new Brazilian users in recent days.

The situation is quite dire for X, which has 87 million users in Brazil. Losing these users and advertisers will significantly impact X's revenue, and it seems unlikely that Musk and Demórais will reconcile anytime soon.