SAO PAULO (AP) — Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink backtracked Tuesday and said it will comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court justice’s order to block the billionaire’s social media platform, X.

Starlink said in a statement posted on X that it will heed Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ order despite him having frozen the company’s assets. Previously, it informally told the telecommunications regulator that it would not comply until de Moraes reversed course.

“Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” the company statement said. “We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent order violate the Brazilian constitution.”

  • @PugJesus
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    12615 days ago

    Pussy. Go on, Elon. Make your companies play chicken with a national government. I’m sure every other national government out there will definitely back you up, because making a company above the law (without paying the requisite bribes) is DEFINITELY something that national governments want to normalize!

    • Blaine
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      -1615 days ago

      Starlink satellites are (quite literally) above the law. Until Brazil develops a space force to go seize them out of orbit, it seems like Elon can do whatever the fuck he wants.

      • @[email protected]
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        2215 days ago

        You can jam the signal with very little power, and you can prevent people in Brazil from paying for the service.

        • @[email protected]
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          214 days ago

          and you can prevent people in Brazil from paying for the service.

          To be fair, Brazil tried that and Elmo just made starlink free for use in Brazil as retaliation. But obviously that’s not something he could do with every country on earth if he wants to make a profit

      • @[email protected]
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        1115 days ago

        The links require a station on the ground, and services must be paid for monthly. Those are two things a local government can control pretty effectively.

  • @JeeBaiChow
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    8915 days ago

    Typical. Send the lawyers first to intimidate. Then get told you have no case. Then walk back tail between legs.

    • @uienia
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      3815 days ago

      Sounds a bit like how he ended up with twitter in the first place

      • Flying Squid
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        15 days ago

        I love that he is so stupid that he didn’t realize he could back out of a legality by saying, “LOL JK.”

    • @BeatTakeshi
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      215 days ago

      Hey happy Lemmy bday! Nice little cake!

  • @phoneymouse
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    7815 days ago

    Elon Musk is picking fights with everyone these days.

  • trevor
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    15 days ago

    That’s a bummer. I was hoping EU countries would be inspired by Brazil to actually enforce some of their laws and ban Twitter as well.

    Edit: as vxx pointed out, there is a positive way to interpret this outcome, and I was probably being needlessly pessimistic.

    • @vxx
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      15 days ago

      Am I missing something? twitter is still blocked in brasil. The article is about starlink caving in and blocking it as well for brasilian users.

      EU might still block them once they decided he doesn’t comply with the law, and fines didn’t help.

      • trevor
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        15 days ago

        Sorry. To clarify what I meant: the “bummer” is that I want the situation with Starlink, Twitter, and Brazil to result in the permanent downfall of that dogshit site, and severe fines for Starlink so that other countries can look toward Brazil as an example of how to deal with the kinds of social media sites that allow disinformation to propagate.

        The fact that Starlink has agreed to comply takes off some of the heat, and therefore leaves some of the territory of fully exploring the legal ramifications of holding reich-wing billionaire freaks somewhat accountable for the shit that their companies do unexplored. Yeah, it’s good that Twitter is still forbidden from operating in Brazil, but I would have liked for Musk to face more repercussions through Starlink as well.

        I hope that the EU still takes action against Twitter though, with or without any additional escalation involving Starlink.

        • @vxx
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          15 days ago

          I see it as a positive. Elon tried to strong arm the judge but they froze assets to show they’re not to be fucked with. It worked and the billionaire didn’t get away.

          Others can still take it as an inspiration or motivation.

          • trevor
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            415 days ago

            Good point. I edited my original comment. Thanks for providing a more positive perspective on this :)