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Brazil's Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes has ordered the unfreezing of financial assets for Starlink and X in the country after Brazil seized over $3.2 million in fines over X's failure to block select accounts, the Court announced Friday.
While Starlink and X/Twitter are separate companies, they're both owned by Elon Musk. De Moraes saw both companies as liable for the fine because they are part of a "de facto economic group" under Musk. Brazil's Supreme Court had fined X roughly $3 million, and then froze Starlink and X assets when the fine was not paid.
X paid about $1.3 million of the fine, while Starlink paid the remaining amount of roughly $1.98 million. Now that the debt has been paid, Starlink and X's seized financial accounts, vehicles, and real estate have been returned to the respective firms, according to the release.
Brazil banned X last month because its Supreme Court believes X has violated Brazilian law with its lax moderation policies, allegations X has repeatedly rejected and denied. Instead, the social media platform claims that Brazil is overstepping its reach and is censoring its people.
The Court has condemned X's decision not to remove content the regulators believe is spreading aggressive political misinformation and harming Brazil's democracy. X has also battled with Brazil over its legal representative in the country. For these reasons, the Court hit X with the now-settled fine of nearly $3.3 million.
On Sept. 7, thousands of supporters of Brazil's former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro marched in the streets in Sao Paulo to protest de Moraes' X ban and praise Musk.
A few days after the ban was made official, Starlink was reportedly waffling over whether it would actually block X on its satellite internet service in Brazil. Ultimately, Starlink said it would comply with the ban, but Starlink parent company SpaceX warned its employees not to travel to the country and told staff in Brazil to leave as the legal battle continued. At time of writing, Starlink's website indicates that its service remains available in Brazil.