In a significant legal development, Brazil's Supreme Court announced on Friday that it had seized approximately $2 million from a Starlink bank account and an additional $1.3 million from X, in order to collect fines imposed on Elon Musk's social network. The ruling stems from the court's decision to treat both Starlink and X as a single economic entity, owing to their shared control under Musk.

Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes had previously frozen the bank accounts of both companies, considering them part of the same de facto economic group. Last week, following money transfers ordered by de Moraes, the accounts were finally unfrozen. The court stated that with the payment of the full amount owed, there was no need to keep the accounts frozen.

However, the suspension of X's social platform, formerly known as Twitter, still remains in effect. The dispute between X and de Moraes began when Musk publicly defied an order from the judge to suspend multiple accounts accused of spreading disinformation. In response, de Moraes ordered the blocking of the X social platform by Internet service providers, leading X to close its office in Brazil and refuse to pay the fines.

Initially, Starlink expressed its unwillingness to block X on its broadband service until its assets were unfrozen. Yet, Starlink swiftly changed its stance and agreed to block X, while simultaneously vowing to challenge the asset freeze in court. The Supreme Court's announcement highlighted that both Starlink and X missed the deadline to appeal the ruling classifying them as part of the same economic group.

Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX, accused de Moraes of "harassing Starlink" and criticized the freezing of its assets as an unfounded determination. X argued that de Moraes targeted their platform due to their refusal to comply with what they deemed as illegal orders to censor political opponents. They asserted that they were not defying Brazilian law but were simply refusing to break it.

Further reports suggest that some of the X accounts that de Moraes ordered Musk to suspend were associated with users allegedly involved in threatening federal police officers investigating former President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro and his supporters, who had previously faced accusations regarding the instigation of an attack on the Brazilian Congress following his election loss, praised Musk after he defied orders to block X accounts linked to Bolsonaro supporters earlier this year.

As the legal battle continues, the actions taken by Brazil's Supreme Court to seize funds from Starlink and X underscore the growing tensions between tech companies and governments worldwide, particularly regarding issues of free speech and censorship.