Elon Musk-controlled satellite internet provider Starlink has told Brazil’s telecom regulator Anatel it will not comply with a court order to block social media platform X in the country until its local accounts are unfrozen.

Anatel confirmed the information to Reuters on Monday after its head Carlos Baigorri told Globo TV it had received a note from Starlink, which has more than 200,000 customers in Brazil, and passed it onto Brazil’s top court.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes last week ordered all telecom providers in the country to shut down X, which is also owned by billionaire Musk, for lacking a legal representative in Brazil.

The move also led to the freezing of Starlink’s bank accounts in Brazil. Starlink is a unit of Musk-led rocket company SpaceX. The billionaire responded to the account block by calling Moraes a “dictator.”

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      2 months ago

      His life experiences? Having that much money and power really fucks with someone’s perceptions of the world.

    • Makhno@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Why does the weird one think that he should have more power than a government?

      Because he quite literally does in a lot of cases. When is he ever punished?

    • kralk@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I’m scared of the day Amazon realises they actually do have more power than the government.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Because obviously the benevolent billionaire will do so much more good to the world than an evil government specifically elected by the will of the people. (/s)

    • Woht24@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He absolutely shouldn’t, but isn’t this just a dick swinging contest by both Brazil and Musk?

      I haven’t been following it but banning an entire website because they don’t have a ‘legal representative’ in your country sounds bizarre.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Twitter did have an office in Brazil (with legal representation) but after refusing to implement court ordered bans, the court fined them. Elon Musk threw a temper tantrum and shut down the Brazil office and eliminated his legal representation in Brazil.

        Note that Musk will implement bans when requested by authoritarians, just for some reason he draws the line when it’s a court order in a democratic country.

        Anyway the situation where Twitter doesn’t have legal representation is a situation Elon Musk created. Basically “I fired my lawyers so there’s nothing you can do against me now! Checkmate!” So Brazil says “fine, I guess we’re banning Twitter then…”

        So Space Karen thinks the the law doesn’t apply to him and it’s going to cost him a lot of money. Again.

      • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        It is when the law says that for a company to operate in Brazil it has to have an appointed legal representative, and you close down your offices and refuse to re-appoint one when the judge demands you to.
        Musk entered a “No pants no service” restaurant, took his pants off, was told to put them back on and refused, and is now surprised he gets no service.

        • Woht24@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I don’t know what you thought I said to begin your comment with ‘it is’, because if you’re agreeing it’s a dick swinging contest, then the rest of your comment seems strange.

          Anyway, fair enough - like I said, I have not been following it.

        • sczlbutt@lemmy.pubsub.fun
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          2 months ago

          Shut down the offices and evacuated employees when threatened with arrest. There’s a whole lot more to this story…

          • ZeroHora
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            2 months ago

            That’s what Musk tells, the reality the legal representative alone could be arrested because Musk don’t want to pay the fines, the employees just lost their jobs because Musk don’t want to spend 0.00001% of his wealth.

          • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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            2 months ago

            I mean, yes, when you are the legal representative for a company, that is what might happen when the company breaks the local laws and refuses to comply with court orders. That’s kinda the whole point.

      • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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        2 months ago

        I think that’s a bit reductive.

        It’s fair enough to expect a large company to have a rep to attend court if they want to do business in your country.

        If they refuse then it becomes a “rule of law” situation - even if it’s a dumb law, you can’t have a multinational disregard the court’s instructions.

      • Lautaro@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It was banned because they refused to comply with anti-hate speech policies. According to musk, moderating his platform would be “political persecution” against those poor nazis.

    • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’m on side with Elon and Radio Caroline in this issue.

      He’s not broadcasting from inside Brazil’s borders, so the regulators can get stuffed.

      • gressen@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        The ground antennas that enable the service totally broadcast from inside Brazil.

          • gressen@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            I think the next logical step for Brazil is to revoke a license to operate in that spectrum, rendering all user terminals illegal.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        On 3 March 1968, the radio ships Mi Amigo and Caroline were boarded and seized before the day’s broadcasting began. They were towed to Amsterdam by a salvage company to secure unpaid bills for servicing by the Dutch tender company Wijsmuller Transport.[6] Caroline was broken up for scrap in 1972.[21]

        Looks like being in an international area doesn’t actually make you immune to consequences. If Brazil doesn’t want something broadcasting then the only way to keep them from shutting it down is to broadcast from inside a national area. If push comes to shove they can ban Starlink too, confiscate any receivers they can find, and even shoot down the satellites.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The satellites may be carrying starshields on them which are national security modules with the DoD. Shooting down the wrong satellite would be attacking US national defense infrastructure.

          Nevermind starshields are whole DoD satellites.

          I think when I read this, I replaced starshield with starlink

          the ability to put a wide variety of instruments on the Starshield satellite bus

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The US is not going to go to war over SpaceX’s private Internet satellites.

            • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Lets assume they’re not carrying DOD data (they are), do you really think the US will sit back and let some third world-

              1. Destroy US Commercial property

              2. Start a Kessler Storm

              Without consequence? US destroyed Iran’s navy over a single shipping vessel…

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                The DoD is not depending on starlink in South America. And dropping a few satellites is not going to create a Kessler effect. And Operation Praying Mantis was because they attacked a US Navy Frigate.

                Are you done being dramatic?