X officially blocked in Brazil; court demands Apple remove it from the App Store [U]

Following a dispute between Elon Musk and the Brazilian Supreme Court, the social network X has been officially banned from Brazil as of this Friday evening. As a result, the court is now demanding that Apple remove X from the Brazilian App Store – something that is yet to happen.

Update: As the story unfolds, the Brazilian court has now softened the ban on X and no longer requires Apple and Google to remove the app from their respective stores. However, access to the social network is still blocked in the country. You can read the original story below.

X banned in Brazil

X has been involved in a lot of controversy since it was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022, when it was still called Twitter. Estimates are that X has around 400 million active users around the world, with 20 million in Brazil alone. But recent events led the Brazilian Supreme Court to ban X from the country this Friday.

A few weeks ago, Musk shut down X’s office in Brazil and laid off all the employees of the Brazilian branch. The decision came after X wrote a letter about not agreeing with requests from the Brazilian supreme court to take down certain profiles considered harmful for spreading false information, especially since this is an election year in the country.

However, Brazilian law requires social networks operating in the country to have a local legal representative to deal with bureaucratic issues. Since Musk failed to comply with the Brazilian court and didn’t appoint a legal representative for X in Brazil, the platform has now been banned from the country.

X has already racked up more than $3 million in fines in Brazil for disobeying local court orders to take down profiles deemed harmful.

• Selling X verification as a subscription is illegal, says the EU

Apple to remove the X app from the Brazilian App Store

With the ban, the court requested that all internet providers immediately cut off access to X in Brazil. It also requested that both Apple and Google remove the X app from the App Store and Google Play.

While access to X has indeed been suspended in Brazil, the app is still available on Apple’s App Store – allowing users with a VPN to access it normally. Apple is yet to comment on whether it will comply with the Brazilian court, but a fine of $9,000 per day has been set for those who do not comply.

Earlier this year, Apple banned both WhatsApp and Threads from the Chinese App Store after a request from the local government. The company also provides a website detailing the removal of apps due to legal violations.

As for the situation in Brazil, rumors claim that Musk is in talks with the local government to bring X back to the country. Today’s actions have motivated a lot of Brazilians to create accounts on other microblogging platforms such as Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads.

Source: G1