Elon Musk has announced his intention to offer free Starlink services to schools in Brazil if the government proceeds with canceling a contract for the service in the country.
Numerous schools in Brazil have already relied on SpaceX to deliver internet access to their communities. Starlink terminals establish connections to the company’s satellites in low Earth orbit, delivering high-speed communications.
These developments coincide with an escalating conflict between social media company X, also owned by Mr. Musk, and the Brazilian government. In an April 6 post on the platform, the global affairs team disclosed that they were compelled by court rulings to block specific popular accounts in Brazil.
In a response to a post on X, Elon has claimed that Brazil demanded X suspend the accounts of people who raised corruption concerns, insisting that X should pretend the suspensions were due to violations of X’s terms of service. Musk explained that X obeys the laws of countries ‘even if we disagree with them, but this requires violating the laws of Brazil.’
The global affairs team asserted that the company faced fines if it failed to adhere to the order, adding that they were unable to furnish a list detailing the accounts affected by the directive.
The announcement followed a report titled “Twitter Files Brazil” by investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger and two colleagues. Shellenberger explained that sitting members of Brazil’s Congress and journalists were among those named by Brazil’s highest court for censorship, and then shared his findings on X.
Soon after, Musk declared that he had eliminated all content restrictions in Brazil in defiance of the order. Consequently, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes initiated a probe into Musk for alleged obstruction of justice, stemming from his challenge of a court order mandating the removal of specific X accounts.
In his decision on April 7, Justice de Moraes specified that Mr. Musk would be investigated for alleged obstruction of justice, involvement in criminal organization, and incitement.
