Brazil is divided over the social media dispute between the Supreme Court and Elon Musk

A recent poll shows that Brazilians are divided over Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ order to block social media platform X in the country. A narrow majority supports the judge in his legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk, but measures such as fining VPN users and freezing Starlink accounts are described as “abusive” by many citizens.

Polling firm AtlasIntel revealed that 50.9% of respondents disagreed with Moraes’ decision to suspend X, while 48.1% agreed and 0.9% were unsure. When asked about the public feud between Moraes and Musk, 49.7% sided with the judge, while 43.9% supported Musk and 5.4% remained neutral.

The long-running dispute revolves around X’s refusal to appoint a local legal representative and comply with the Brazilian court’s orders. A remarkable 48.9% of Brazilians believe X should have complied with the orders, and 37.6% support Musk’s decision to defy them. The poll also found that 64.5% oppose fines for VPN users and 55.1% consider the blocking of Starlink accounts “abusive.” The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

(With contributions from agencies.)