“One Saturday morning at the end of August, I wake up here in Rio, look at my phone, and for the first time since I lived in China, where I was correspondent before I came here, I look at my phone and Twitter doesn’t work.”

The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, tells Michael Safi how Elon Musk ended up in a feud with Brazil’s government.

Brazil’s supreme court has banned X, formally known as Twitter, in response to Musk’s refusal to obey court orders requiring the removal of X profiles accused of spreading disinformation and for not naming a local legal representative.

“Musk decided not to comply with Brazilian legislation,” Phillips says. “He decided not to comply with that deadline, and therefore X was blocked. So it was a very dramatic turn of events.”

What could the dispute mean for Brazilians who rely on Musk-owned Starlink devices for internet connection?

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