MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Starlink not banning X in Brazil

Starlink faces “the cancellation of its license,” Baigorri explained

Starlink, the satellite internet service provider (ISP) owned among others by tycoon Elon Musk, has announced it would not abide by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes' decision to ban the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter and also a Musk business) in South America's largest country.

 National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) Chairman Carlos Baigorri said in a TV interview that Starlink had warned him that it would not be followinf De Moraes' order at least until the company's bank accounts frozen by the magistrate are unblocked. De Moraes had adopted the measure to secure the collection of the fines he had imposed on X for refusing to supply the private data of some users as well as shuting down their accounts in accordance with the magistrate's instructions.

De Moraes had already launched a probe against Musk back in April for reactivating accounts previously suspended by order of Brazilian courts. The judge had also threatened to incarcerate X's representative in the country and froze bank accounts belonging to Starlink (SpaceX). But Musk replied that he only owned 40% of SpaceX's stock and therefore De Moraes' arbitrary ruling affected the assets and interests of other shareholders in no way connected to the now outlawed social network. Starlink has over 200,000 users in Brazil who therefore still have access to X despite the judge's order to suspend it due to the unpaid fines.

Anatel was in charge of carrying out the judge's orders to cancel all of X's operations in the country, rendering unattainable for local users unless they resorted to a VPN, a gadget devised to circumvent local restrictions. But De Moraes also ruled that Brazilians trying that method would be fined R$ 50,000 (US$ 8,900) a day.

Anatel ordered all internet providers nationwide to complay with the magistrate's decision but admitted Starlink was beyond its reach. “We received information that Starlink would not block access to the X platform. Throughout the day I contacted Starlink's lawyers at Anatel, and what they told us now, in the afternoon, is that Starlink would not block access to X until the resources blocked by the courts associated with Starlink were released,” Baigorri said Friday. “As soon as we received that information, we sent it to Minister Alexandre De Moraes for him to take the measures he considers appropriate,” noted the Anatel head, who also pointed out that the agency had been warned about Starlink's decision in an informal way.

In this scenario, Starlink faces “the cancellation of the license,” Baigorri also explained. Should that happen, “it will no longer be able to provide telecommunications services in Brazil,” he added.