X, formerly Twitter, has named a legal representative in Brazil, the firm’s lawyers said on Friday. The Elon Musk-owned social media platform was banned from the country for not complying with demands imposed by Brazil’s top court to appoint a legal representative in the country. Reuters reported that Oliveira Conceicao was chosen as the firm’s legal representative in Brazil, Andre Zonaro and Sergio Rosenthal, the firm’s lawyers, announced.
Late last month, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked nationwide after months of tension with the site’s billionaire owner Elon Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. De Moraes also set fines for anyone using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access the platform.
In a recent directive, Alexandre de Moraes had asked X to prove the legality of the new legal representation in Brazil by 9:29 p.m. Friday. The appointment was communicated withing the given deadline to the Federal Supreme Court. On Thursday, the lawyers representing X in Brazil said the firm would present a legal representative to the local Supreme Court “very soon.” They added that X was also starting to comply with the orders on removing content, as ordered by the top court.
The shutdown of X earlier in August followed a months-long dispute between Musk and Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes over X’s non-compliance with court orders demanding the platform take action against the spread of hate speech.
Some Brazilian users regained access to X on Wednesday apparently resulting from the social network changing the way its servers are accessed. In Thursday’s ruling, Moraes also fined X R$ 5 million, for circumventing the directive by changing the IP address and allowing some people in Brazil to access the platform.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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