X faces an additional fine of $1.9 million for lifting the ban in Brazil

X (formerly Twitter) could soon resume operations in Brazil if it agrees to pay an additional fine.

This was reported by Reuters and other publications by order of the country’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes stating that Elon Musk’s social networking site can “immediately return to its operations in the country” if it pays a fine of 10 million reais (about $1.9 million).

This is in addition to the 18.3 million reais ($3.4 million) for which X has already been fined. Brazil froze accounts belonging to X and Musk’s satellite web company Starlink to pay the fine, but Moraes said that to proceed operating, Starlink must withdraw its appeal against the payment.

For most of the 12 months, X was engaged in a legal dispute over Moraes’ try to block some accounts he accused of publishing election disinformation. (Musk said that Moraes “should resign or be impeached”). The company ultimately ceased operations in Brazil and was banned from entering the country at the end of August.

The ban resulted in an increase in the popularity of competing services, including Bluesky.

However, X recently appeared to reverse course, agreeing to freeze the designated accounts, pay the required financial penalties and appoint a legal representative in Brazil. Moraes is making the company pay this additional fine after X apparently bypassed the ban earlier this month and resumed services in the country – apparently a “coincidence” attributable to X switching to Cloudflare’s infrastructure.

The X Global Government Affairs account appeared to substantiate his approval fasting on Thursdaywriting: “We recognize and respect the sovereignty of the countries in which we operate” and asserting that providing access to Brazilian users “is essential to a thriving democracy.”