RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday ordered the suspension of X in Latin America’s largest country, a dramatic escalation in a months-long dispute with platform owner Elon Musk over the limits of free speech in an era gripped by polarization and disinformation.
The order by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, which did not immediately take the site down, could affect more than 20 million X users in Brazil and deprive the platform of one of its largest and most active markets. The closely watched dispute has made Brazil — X’s fourth-largest market — a key venue in the global debate between free speech and disinformation, and has become central to Musk’s mission of making X a “free speech public square.”
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