X has been suspended in Brazil since late August. Brazil’s Supreme Court announced on Friday that lawyers for the social media platform X did not pay pending fines to the correct bank, delaying its decision on whether to permit the tech firm to resume operations in the country.
The payment of these fines is the only outstanding requirement mandated by the court for X to be authorized to operate again in Brazil. X has faced suspension in Brazil, one of its largest markets, due to non-compliance with court orders regarding hate speech moderation and for failing to designate a legal representative in the country, as required by law.
Earlier on Friday, X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, submitted a new request to restore its services in Brazil, claiming it had settled all outstanding fines. In response, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed that the payment be made to the correct bank.
He also indicated that once the fines are resolved, Brazil’s prosecutor general would provide an opinion on the recent requests from X’s legal team, which has been seeking to have the platform reinstated.
Following Moraes’ ruling, X’s lawyers requested the court for authorization to resume operations, asserting that the company did not pay the fines to the wrong account and arguing that there was no need for the prosecutor general’s input before lifting the ban.
After complying with the top court’s orders in recent weeks, including blocking some accounts under investigation, X asked the court on September 26 to allow it to resume service in Brazil. However, Moraes ruled at that time that X still needed to pay just over $5 million in pending fines before the suspension could be lifted.
On Friday, X’s lawyers informed the Supreme Court that the company had paid 28.6 million reais ($5.24 million) in fines, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.
