Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has initiated an inquiry into Elon Musk concerning allegations of obstruction of justice involving his social media company, X, as per a court document issued on Sunday.
The inquiry pertains to Musk's defiance of a directive by Justice Moraes instructing X to block specific accounts. Musk contested the decision, asserting its unconstitutionality and announced via a social media post that X would lift the restrictions.
In response, Justice Moraes emphasized in his ruling that X must adhere to all court orders, including refraining from reactivating any profiles previously blocked by the Supreme Court. Failure to comply with this directive could result in fines of 100,000 reais (approximately USD 19,740) per day for X.
This action follows a previous investigation initiated by Justice Moraes last year targeting executives at the social messaging platform Telegram and Alphabet's Google. This investigation was prompted by their involvement in crafting an internet regulation bill.Â
The bill proposed a significant shift in responsibility onto internet companies, search engines, and social messaging services to identify and report illegal content, rather than relying solely on judicial intervention. Additionally, it proposed imposing substantial fines for non-compliance with these regulations.
