X, formerly known as Twitter, has closed its Brazilian office amid a dispute over censorship.
The social media platform said Brazil’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes had threatened the platform’s legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if they did not comply with his “censorship orders.”
Brazil’s Supreme Court has not commented.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s platform announced Saturday that people in Brazil can still use X.
Moraes ordered that X-accounts he accuses of spreading disinformation – many of them supporters of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro – be blocked while the investigation continues.
After X’s owner Musk criticised Moraes, the judge fined X 100,000 reais ($19,774; £15,670) for each day that accounts were reopened, and highlighted that the company’s legal representative in Brazil could be held liable if they were reopened.
Musk is also under investigation for alleged obstruction of justice and other offences.
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X said in a statement that its Brazilian staff have no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked, but that Moraes chose to intimidate its Brazilian staff rather than respect the law.
“As a result, and to protect the safety of our employees, we have decided to close our operations in Brazil effective immediately,” X said.
“The responsibility lies solely with Mr. Alexandre de Moraes.”
“His actions are incompatible with democratic politics.”
“There is no question that Moraes needs to step down,” Musk wrote on X.
He added that the decision to close the Brazilian office was “difficult” but that if the company had agreed to Moraes’ “demands, it would have been impossible to explain our actions without embarrassment.”
Moraes is disliked by supporters of former President Bolsonaro, who ordered investigations into some of the president’s closest associates during his presidency.
