A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered an “immediate and complete suspension” of Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, operations in the country.
Alexandre de Moraes said in a statement that the social media platform will be banned until X complies with all court orders and pays existing fines.
Judge Morais, who has had a long-running feud with X, has given the social media platform 24 hours to appoint new legal representatives or face suspension, with a deadline of Thursday evening.
The platform is expected to be unavailable in the country for the next 24 hours.
Judge Moraes gave companies including Apple and Google five days to remove X from their app stores.
According to local media reports, people trying to access the platform through a VPN could be fined 50,000 reais (£6,700) after the ban comes into effect.
On Thursday, X said it expected the company to be blocked in Brazil after failing to meet a deadline to appoint a new legal representative for the company.
The social media network closed its offices in the country earlier this month, saying its representative had been threatened with arrest if she did not comply with what it called “censorship” orders.
The months-long dispute began in April when Judge Moraes ordered the suspension of dozens of X accounts suspected of spreading disinformation.
X owner Elon Musk threatened to reactivate the accounts and described Judge Moraes as a “tyrant” and “dictator.”
