Starlink pulled into showdown between Brazil and Elon Musk

Starlink, the Musk-owned internet satellite company, has been pulled into a fight between the billionaire and Brazil’s supreme court. This week, the court upheld a nationwide ban on X, Musk’s social media platform, in a long-running feud over X accounts allegedly spreading disinformation and undermining Brazilian democracy. Last week, Alexandre de Moraes, a supreme court judge, ordered the freezing of Starlink assets so they could not be used to pay off a $3 million fine imposed on X. In response, Musk refused to obey court orders to block Brazilian access to X on the Starlink network. Brazil is now threatening to revoke Starlink’s licence to operate in the country, which would hypothetically prevent the company from offering connections to its Brazilian customers. This disconnection would impact 250,000 Brazillians – 66,000 of whom are based in the Amazon, including remote Amazon tribes. Starlink is the sole internet provider for 90 per cent of the Amazon’s municipalities.