Legal demands from Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes are driving social networking behemoth X to close its Brazilian offices. The business said that this action was required since de Moraes threatened to arrest X executives should the platform refuse to remove material identified by the Brazilian authorities.

"Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened to arrest our legal representative in Brazil if we did not comply with his censorship demands," X's Global Government Affairs team said on Saturday on the site. They further disclosed that this directive was issued under cover of secrecy. X underlined that de Moraes persisted with his threats even though several pleas to the Supreme Court and its Brazilian staff had no control over the content of the platform.

X responded by deciding to stop running business in Brazil in order to guarantee staff members' safety. De Moraes accused the platform of hosting "digital militias" that disseminated hate and false information, especially around former President Jair Bolsonaro, therefore triggering the closure.

Owner of X, Elon Musk, voiced his annoyance on social media and referred to de Moraes as "a disgrace to justice." Agreeing to the judge's requests would have broken several laws, he said, thereby forcing them to stop running business instead of compromising their moral standards.

Musk assured Brazilians they would still be able to access the platform even with the office closing.