'Stop harassing Starlink,' SpaceX president tells Brazilian judge
The dispute between X and Brazil is spilling over to Elon Musk's other businesses.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell made a public plea to one of Brazil’s top judicial figures on Thursday, asking him to “please stop harassing Starlink” amid the ongoing battle in the country against Elon Musk’s social media business X.
Musk has been engaged in a months-long dispute with the Brazilian courts, which have been waging a war against X for hosting accounts that the courts say spread extremism and misinformation.
After X refused to comply with court orders last month asking it to remove certain accounts, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered an immediate, country-wide suspension of the platform. That ban, backed by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was unanimously upheld earlier this week.
But the feud has been spilling over to Musk’s other businesses, chiefly SpaceX, which sells its satellite internet service Starlink in the country. Immediately after banning X, Brazil reportedly froze Starlink’s company accounts, in order to guarantee X pay the more than $3 million in fines it owes Brazilian courts, local media reported.
That order is specifically focused on Starlink Brazil Holding Ltda and Starlink Brazil Servicos de Internet Ltda, which have provided internet access to around 250,000 customers inside the country since January 2022. Many of those customers are located in regions of the country underserved by traditional telecom infrastructure. It’s likely one of Starlink’s largest markets outside of North America.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.