The social media outlet X has decided to close its Brazilian office.

The decision was made, according to the company, after it had received legal threats from Brazilian Judge Alexandre de Moraes.

The company's complete statement on the situation can be read here:

Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.

Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard,… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024

What happened?

According to X, Moraes actually threatened to arrest X's legal representatives if they did not comply with his demands.

"Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions," X wrote.

X did include the document with its post. It can be found here.

X went on to write:

Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.

The company went on to say that, "to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil." X, though, will remain available to the Brazilian people. The company concluded by saying that Moraes's "actions are incompatible with democratic government," and it called upon the people of Brazil to remove Moraes from his post.

Musk responds

X's owner - Elon Musk - has posted several messages further explaining his company's decision to close down its Brazil offices.

In one post, Musk wrote:

The decision to close the 𝕏 office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.

Musk also referred to Moraes as "an utter disgrace to justice,"

And, he argued that the judge needs to go.

"No question that Moraes needs to leave. Having a 'justice' who repeatedly and egregiously violates the law is no justice at all," Musk wrote.