Brazil's Supreme Court announced Friday that it instructed banks to transfer funds from Starlink and X accounts to pay the fines imposed by the court on Elon Musk's social network.

The court's chief judge, Alexandre de Moraes, and a panel of 5 other judges concluded that X had repeatedly violated Brazilian law by refusing to appoint a legal representative within the country and by refusing to remove from its platform content or profiles that the court deemed harmful to Brazil's democratic institutions.

The court ordered nearly 18.4 million Brazilian reals, or about $3.3 million, to be withdrawn from the accounts. Musk acquired X, then generally known as Twitter, in 2022. Starlink is SpaceX's satellite web service.

Following the transfers, the court ordered the discharge of X and Starlink's frozen bank accounts and assets, as there was now not any reason to maintain them.

The Court suspended X at the top of August and the suspension stays in effect.

Musk and his corporations have said they view de Moraes' actions as “illegal” and his court's orders as issued without due process. X and SpaceX didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment on Friday.

Brazilian News agency UOL reported earlier this month that a few of the accounts Musk ordered de Moraes to dam on X belonged to users who had allegedly threatened federal law enforcement officials involved in investigations into former right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro is accused of inciting the January 8 riots in Brazil and attempting a coup there.

Musk is a supporter of Bolsonaro, partly because the previous Brazilian president gave his company Starlink permission to operate within the country.

Since April, Musk has increasingly made insults and calls for impeachment against de Moraes. 5 SeptemberHis long-time colleague on the helm of SpaceX, COO Gwynne Shotwell, has also launched online attacks on Brazil's Supreme Court.

She wrote: “@Alexandre please stop harassing Starlink and let's continue to serve the people of Brazil.”

Supporters of de Moraes and the STF viewed the orders against X Corp. as an assertion of Brazilian sovereignty.

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Brazil's Supreme Court on Friday ordered a nationwide blockade of Elon Musk's social network X after the corporate said it was defying previous court orders on content moderation and the appointment of a legal representative within the country.

Alexandre de Moraes, the court's chief judge, also ordered every day fines for people or firms in Brazil that use virtual private networks (VPNs) or other methods to access X while the positioning is banned within the country. G1 Globe reported.

The court made a press release via the Brazilian government website on Friday, saying it had “ordered the immediate and total suspension of the operations of X, formerly Twitter, throughout the national territory until the court decisions are implemented and the fines imposed are paid.” The statement also said the order could be valid “until a representative of the company is appointed in the country.”

Hours later, the court issued a second order Some of the measures in his first 51-page order against X were suspended. First, de Moraes gave firms like Apple and Google five days to stop offering downloads of X of their app stores and to stop providing VPN apps to access X. The second order lifted that deadline and postponed implementation of those measures until further notice, giving X time to pay fines and appoint legal counsel.

Brazil's Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that Musk and X had 24 hours to either appoint a legal representative for his or her business there or face a nationwide “penalty of suspension of their activities.” The deadline expired on Thursday evening.

X's Global Government Affairs Division said in a press release Late Thursday, it said it expected de Moraes to shut “imminently” because the corporate would “not comply” with its orders.

Brazil, a key U.S. ally outside NATO, is currently preparing for local elections in October. Brazilian law requires social media firms within the country to rent someone to handle government warnings, including those related to political misinformation and incitement to violence.

X doesn’t have such a representative in Brazil and announced earlier this month that it might quite remove all its employees from the country than face possible arrest for failing to comply with court orders.

A suspension of X in Brazil could cause business problems for Musk's already struggling company. Brazil has a population of greater than 171 million lively social media users by market Research by Oosga.

Musk led the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late 2022. He implemented sweeping changes and reinstated previously locked and suspended accounts, prompting many major advertisers to scale back or completely abandon their ad campaign spending.

The World Bank stopped Funding campaigns on X after a CBS News investigation found that the organization's ads appeared under a racist post from an X account that often posted “pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.”

Musk attacked de Moraes in a series of posts after the court froze the funds of Starlink, Musk's SpaceX's satellite web service in Brazil. Starlink has advertised on X under Musk's leadership and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to make use of Starlink to access the social media platform.

The de Moraes court had fined X for alleged violations of Brazilian law and froze Starlink's funds within the country to make sure payment of the fines.

Critics of de Moraes see his court's orders against X as an overreach. His court has a history of blocking social media apps until they comply with the country's regulations. For example, Meta-owned apps Whatsapp and Telegram were each blocked in Brazil but have since been reinstated.

On Friday, Musk compared de Moraes to a movie villain Voldemort and shared a post during which he “endorsed the evil tyranny by Moraes.”

Representatives of X and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil were not immediately available for comment.

Musk has repeatedly called de Moraes' court orders censorship. In his statement Thursday, X said the de Moraes court had taken “illegal motion” against the company.

On Friday, after the suspension was announced, Musk said on X: “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of individuals learning the reality that it would bankrupt anyone who tries.”

Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, SpaceX and X Corp., stepped up his online attacks on Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday, amid a worsening political and legal dispute between the tech billionaire and his corporations and Brazil's top court.

De Moraes' court announced on Wednesday Musk and X Corp. were ordered to appoint a legal representative for the social media company (formerly Twitter) in Brazil inside 24 hours, otherwise X faces the “penalty of suspension of its activities.”

A blocking of X in Brazil could cause serious business problems for the already struggling social network. Brazil has a population of greater than 171 million lively social media users by market Research by Oosga.

The country is preparing for local elections in October. And under Brazilian law, social networks there must employ someone to receive and review official warnings about political false reports.

X doesn’t have any such worker in Brazil after the corporate announced earlier this month that it will withdraw all its employees from the country.

On Wednesday evening, Musk posted a doctored image that appeared to indicate the judge behind bars. “One day, @Alexandre, that picture of you in prison will be real. Mark my words,” Musk wrote to de Moraes and Musk's 195.8 million followers on X.

On Thursday, G1 Globo in Brazil had revealed that de Moraes had ordered “the freezing of all financial assets” of Musk's corporations in Brazil, including SpaceX's own Starlink, to “guarantee the payment of the fines” imposed by the court on X.

“Earlier this week we received an order from the Supreme Court of Brazil @alexandre de Moraes, which freezes Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions in that country,” the corporate said in a post late Wednesday.

“This order is based on the unsubstantiated finding that Starlink should be responsible for the fines imposed – unconstitutionally – on X,” the corporate said. “It was issued in secret and without granting Starlink the due process guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. We intend to resolve the matter legally.”

Starlink is a satellite web service operated by SpaceX. It is now approved for industrial operation in 105 countries, including Brazil. Starlink has been promoting itself on X under Musk's leadership, and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to make use of Starlink to access X.

Musk, X Corp. CEO Linda Yaccarino and SpaceX representatives didn’t reply to CNBC's request for further information Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday, Musk called de Moraes “an outright criminal” who only “poses as a judge” in a post on X. The tech billionaire continued, “The tyrant, @Alexandre, is the dictator of Brazil. Lula is his lapdog,” referring to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected president of Brazil in 2022, defeating far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro is a long-time ally of Musk, and his government granted Musk the best to operate Starlink in Brazil and awarded Musk a medal in recognition of his services to the country. Bolsonaro's right-wing supporters have develop into visible fans of the tech billionaire.

De Moraes' critics see him as a censor who oversteps his role, while supporters applaud his court's efforts to curb harmful misinformation on the Brazilian web.

Earlier this yr, on April 7, Judge de Moraes opened an investigation against Musk and X Corp. for alleged obstruction of justice.

Although Musk had announced that he would defy the Brazilian court's orders to limit or block some popular accounts on X, on April 15, the social network's lawyers declared before Brazil's Supreme Court that they’d indeed comply with the court's orders.

De Moraes' court can also be investigating Musk and X as a part of a broader investigation into Brazil's so-called digital militias, individuals accused of spreading misinformation online to attack the country's democratic institutions.

X Corp. has been subpoenaed by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to share details about Brazilian court orders on content moderation. The Republican-controlled committee, which is worried about censorship, released information about Brazilian court orders ordering X to dam or remove around 150 user accounts from its platform lately.