There's no easy solution, including in Brazil, where the judiciary has broad powers to demand the removal of specific posts and accounts. Exercising that authority comes with its own peril - especially the danger that a total ban of the platform formerly known as Twitter will fuel accusations of censorship and further fracture the global internet.
"Even if we look at international standards of freedom of expression, blocking an entire platform is seen as a drastic measure," said Veridiana Alimonti, a Brazil-based expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation . "It's problematic when it involves platforms that host both legal and illegal speech."
While governments worldwide are waging similar battles against fake news and hateful content on X, Europe and the US are unlikely to replicate Brazil's move for now, according to officials, academics and industry experts. That's owing to a relative lack of legal authority and the inherent political risk in taking on the world's richest man, who's increasingly aligned himself with right-wing figures and endorsed Republican Donald Trump in the November US election.
Musk's feud with controversial Brazilian supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes over the order barring X intensified an ideological war that's become a rallying cry for the billionaire's right-leaning allies around the world. It culminated the confrontation with regulators that Musk has been stoking since he bought the platform in late 2022 and swiftly remade it into a bastion for content that serves his own political and social views.
EU officials warned X in July against deceiving users into engaging with potentially harmful content - a probe that could could pave the way for fines of up to 6% of the company's revenue. There's no specific timetable for the inquiry, which is one of the first under the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to remove illegal content and police disinformation.
