Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday imposed a $1.42 million “non-compliance” fine on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after it refused to provide personal information on Brazilian conservative journalist Allan Dos Santos.
Dos Santos, a staunch supporter of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro, has resided in the United States since late 2021 after de Moraes issued an arrest warrant against him in October 2021 on multiple criminal charges. De Moraes also issued an extradition request to the United States against Dos Santos at the time that, according to Brazilian Senator Jorge Seif, was “shelved” by the U.S. government.
In July, de Moraes launched an investigation against Dos Santos under allegations of spreading “fake news” and the dissemination of allegedly forged chat messages involving Brazilian journalist Juliana Dal Piva “confessing” a purported plan by de Moraes to have Bolsonaro arrested. The probe is part of the Brazilian Justice’s broader inquiry to investigate “anti-democratic digital militias” that allegedly spread “fake news” and “threaten democracy” in Brazil.
As part of the probe, de Moraes ordered Twitter to censor Dos Santos’ account and hand over Dos Santos’ registration data and other personal information under penalty of a daily fine that totaled $1.42 million as of October. Twitter complied with the censorship order but did not provide the requested information, reportedly alleging that it was not possible to do so as the social media platform does not collect such data and because the user “does not have a technical connection point with Brazil.”
Twitter appealed the ruling in October on the grounds that the court order was disproportionate and would violate freedom of expression — and instead proposed to censor the contents involving the probe while lifting the block on the journalist’s account. The appeal was unanimously rejected by the STF, with de Moraes reportedly stating that “it is not up to the social network to make a request regarding the rights of a third party.”
“NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to the company X BRASIL INTERNET LTDA., through its duly constituted attorneys, so that it may immediately make full payment of the fine imposed due to non-compliance with judicial decisions, in the amount of R$ 8,100,000.00 (eight million one hundred thousand reais)…” Thursday’s court ruling read.
The court ruling also lists the details of a Brazilian state bank account where the social media platform must deposit the funds.
Dos Santos’ account is one of the several Twitter accounts currently censored within Brazilian territory by order of de Moraes. In April, Twitter owner Elon Musk claimed he would defy de Moraes’ censorship court orders, prompting a feud between Musk and de Moraes.
The platform’s defiance of the Brazilian censorship orders led to de Moraes ordering a complete ban of the platform in late August. The ban, which lasted for roughly over a month, was lifted in October after Musk caved and complied with de Moraes’ censorship demands.
In addition to censoring the accounts that de Moraes ordered to have blocked in Brazil, Twitter paid a series of fines totaling $5.24 million that, according to de Moraes, were initially paid to the wrong state bank account, prolonging the social media platform’s ban for several days until the matter was resolved.
Dos Santos responded defiantly to the news on Thursday.
“Someone teach de Moraes to look at the location of the photo, because he needs to know where I am. If Brazil’s Federal Police has any doubts, search for White House on Google Maps,” Dos Santos’ message read. “This fucking tyrant messed with the wrong person.”
De Moraes had possessed a Twitter account himself but has reportedly not posted new content on it since January 2024. On Friday, the Brazilian Justice deactivated it. De Moraes explained to CNN Brasil on Friday morning that he “retired” from Twitter and claimed that the decision has nothing to do with his legal actions against the platform. According to the Brazilian outlet G1, de Moraes does not intend to migrate to another social media platform.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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