Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman criticized a recent court order to suspend Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) in Brazil, arguing that the decision could drive away investors and harm the country’s market. On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Brazilian internet service providers to block access to X after the social media company failed to appoint a legal representative in Brazil to handle requests to remove accounts allegedly involved in spreading political misinformation.
Justice Moraes also ordered the freezing of funds held by Starlink, another Musk enterprise, to cover fines imposed on X for not complying with court rulings.
Ackman warned that these actions could make Brazil an “uninvestable market,” drawing parallels to China, where similar measures led to capital flight and declining valuations. “The same will happen to Brazil unless they quickly retreat from these illegal acts,” Ackman posted on X on Saturday night.
Over the weekend, most of Brazil’s major internet providers complied with the order, prompting many users to switch to alternative social media platforms. Bluesky, a social media network founded by Jack Dorsey after selling Twitter to Musk, reported gaining one million new users in just three days, with a series of welcoming posts in Portuguese.
The full panel of Supreme Court justices is expected to reconvene as early as Monday to discuss the ban, and they are likely to support Moraes’s ruling, according to local news site G1, which cited an unnamed judge. Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso also appeared to back the ruling in an interview, stating that companies without legal representation in Brazil should not be allowed to operate.