Starlink tells Brazil it won’t block X until government unfreezes its assets

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Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service said it would defy an order to block Musk’s X platform in Brazil after the country’s top court required Internet providers to block the site. SpaceX’s Starlink division, which says it has 250,000 customers in Brazil, reportedly told the country’s telecom agency on Sunday that it will not comply with orders to block X.

Starlink said last week that a Brazilian court order “freezes Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions in that country… based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X. It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil.”

Starlink said it would “address the matter legally,” and its refusal to block X appears to be part of an attempt to get its assets unfrozen. “On Sunday, Starlink informed Brazil’s telecom agency, Anatel, that it would not block X until Brazilian officials released Starlink’s frozen assets, Anatel’s president, Carlos Baigorri, said in an interview broadcast by the Brazilian outlet Globo News,” according to The New York Times.