Brazil | AFP | Saturday 5 October 2024

Elon Musk's X has paid millions of dollars in fines in Brazil to settle a row with a judge who banned the platform in its biggest Latin American market over disinformation.

But the platform transferred the money into the wrong account, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the shutdown of X in August, said Friday.

X, formerly known as Twitter, racked up $5.2 million in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders.

Moraes confirmed that the social network had paid the full amount but into a different account from the one on the court order and said it had ordered that the funds be immediately redirected.

Moraes blocked X on 31 August after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading disinformation and failed to name a new legal representative in the country as ordered.   

X, which had 22 million users in Brazil before Moraes blocked it, hopes that payment of the penalties will settle the dispute. 

Last week it said it had complied with the court's other demands, including the appointment of a legal representative in Brazil.

The clash between Musk and Moraes morphed into a high-stakes battle which was closely followed around the globe as a test of both freedom of expression and the fight against disinformation.

A furious Musk hit out at Moraes over the ban calling him an "evil dictator" and dubbing him "Voldemort" after the villain from the "Harry Potter" series.

But in recent days he had been notably more muted on the subject and X has appeared eager to do whatever necessary 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."

But it went back offline again after Moraes threatened it with further fines.

X's fight with Moraes began during Brazil's 2022 presidential election campaign, when Moraes ordered the company to deactivate accounts of followers of failed far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

The standoff escalated following attacks 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.