The Scoop: X backs down over Brazil ban

Three weeks after a Brazilian judge declared that X would be forbidden for failing to ban certain accounts and appoint a legal representative in the country, the social media platform is walking back some of its stances in order to reestablish operations in the nation of 215 million.

The Washington Post reports that X has taken the first step of naming a legal representative in Brazil – an act which is required by Brazilian law but which the company had refused to do after shutting down its local offices. It has also begun blocking accounts that Brazil says have spread misinformation and paying off some of its millions of dollars worth of fines.

It’s still unclear when – or if – X will be legally permitted in Brazil again. In response to the filings, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes simply asked for more documents.

Unusually, X owner Elon Musk has not posted about the about-face on his social network, though in the last few days he’s posted an onslaught of political memes, information about SpaceX and jokes about Mark Zuckerberg’s eyebrows. In the initial aftermath of the ban, he posted a flurry of content about the Brazil ban, included repeated attacks and accusations against Moraes, insisting that the Supreme Court justice did not understand the law of his country  and insisting that he was standing up for free speech. However, since Sept. 5, Musk has fallen silent, failing to tweet about “Brazil,” “judge” or Moraes since, save a single post about his Starlink satellites being used in the country to help during natural disasters.

X had an estimated 22 million users in Brazil. Given that the app has about 600 million average monthly users, that’s a significant number of customers to simply disappear overnight – and the advertising revenue associated with them too.

Why it matters:

Normally, we avoid covering Musk’s PR moves in the Scoop. Much of the conventional wisdom of the industry simply doesn’t apply. But there are two important lessons communicators and businesses can learn here.

The first is that consistency is key.

Musk has claimed that not following the court’s direction is a principled stand in line with his beliefs in free speech. Perhaps it was. However, in the past Musk’s X has blocked some posts critical of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, blocked the accounts of journalists who covered Musk and taken other steps that don’t seem to be in line with his free speech stances. However, in this case, most of the accounts the Brazilian court demanded X block were supporters of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who Musk has vocally supported in the past. It’s not hard to question the consistency of this stance based on Musk’s own stated political opinions.

For many businesses, taking principled stands is a fine thing and something consumers, especially young consumers, increasingly demand. However, in Musk’s case, it seems clear the company is pivoting based on the owner’s whims rather than a methodical survey of free speech issues. X refused to follow the law … until it started hurting the struggling company. Now they’re apparently complying and Musk has fallen silent.

It also shows just how important a strong public affairs game is to organizations, as well as the importance of on-the-ground support in countries around the world. Laws about business governance and free speech vary drastically, and having attorneys, lobbyists and communicators who can navigate these tangled, sometimes contradictory webs, can stop issues before they go nuclear.

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Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.