Brazil’s top court says X paid pending fines to wrong bank

8:17 pm Friday, October 04th, 2024

By Luciana Magalhaes

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Friday that lawyers representing social media platform X did not pay pending fines to the proper bank, postponing its decision on whether to allow the tech firm to resume services in Brazil.

The payment of the fines, which X lawyers argued that the company had paid correctly, is the only outstanding measure demanded by the court in order to authorize X to operate again in Brazil.

X has been suspended since late August in Brazil, one of its largest and most coveted markets, after not complying with court orders related to hate speech moderation and failing to name a legal representative in the country, as required by law.

Earlier on Friday, X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, filed a fresh request to have its services restored in Brazil, saying it had paid all pending fines.

In response to the request, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes requested the payment to be transferred to the right bank.

He also determined that once fines are sorted out, Brazil’s prosecutor general will give his opinion on the recent requests made by X’s legal team in Brazil, which has been seeking to have the platform restored in the country.

Following Moraes’ decision on Friday, X lawyers again asked the court for authorization to resume operations in Brazil, denying that the company had paid the fines to the wrong account and saying they do not see the need for the prosecutor general to be consulted before the ban is lifted.

After reversing course and following the top court’s orders in recent weeks, including blocking some accounts under investigation, the company asked the court on Sept. 26 to allow it to resume service in Brazil.

Moraes, however, ruled at the time that X still needed to pay just over $5 million in pending fines before the suspension was lifted.

On Friday, X’s lawyers told the Supreme Court that the company had paid 28.6 million reais ($5.24 million) in fines, according to a document seen by Reuters.

($1 = 5.4597 reais)

(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao PauloEditing by Chris Reese, Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler)