The judge Elon Musk, who bizarrely called Brazil's Darth Vader "Elon Musk", gives Twitter 24 hours to comply or be shut down by his legal battle station.

A Brazilian judge has given Twitter 24 hours to appoint a local legal representative or face the closure of its local operations (via AP).

The judge is Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Court. Musk has had previous disagreements with him, mocking him in a tweet as "Brazil’s Darth Vader". Moraes had ordered an investigation in April into Musk for spreading fake news. A separate probe was focused on obstruction, incitement and criminal organisation.

The court was particularly concerned about Musk's reinstatement a number of far-right Twitter accounts. Moraes is pursuing "digital militias," or far-right activists, who are accused of spreading misinformation and inciting violence towards Supreme Court justices in Brazil. They also tried to overturn Lula Ignacio Da Silva's election in Brazil in 2022. Silva, also known as Lula, defeated Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Supporters of the former president attacked Brazil’s Congress in 2023.

The court is not happy with Musk's self described "free speech absoluteism" which seems to favor far-right figures. Since Musk took over the social media platform in 2013, Twitter has seen an increase in hate speech. It has also reinstated figures such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Former president Donald Trump was also reinstated. Other accounts, including journalists critical of Musk, have been inexplicably banned. Musk also reportedly terminated Twitter's Brazilian election disinformation team, adding to the fire that he has been stoking with Moraes.

Twitter is also upset at court orders to ban prominent Bolsonaristas, as well as other extremists. The situation seemed to reach a boiling point earlier this month when Twitter posted a post criticizing Moraes’ "censorship orders" and stating that Alexandre de Moraes had threatened to arrest our legal representative in Brazil if we did not comply. As a result, the company closed its Brazilian operations "effectively immediately." However, Twitter as a whole remained available to Brazilian users.

But that may not last. Moraes gave Twitter until last night, August 28th, 24 hours to appoint a legal representative. "Under penalty of immediate suspension of activities of social network 'X (formerly Twitter)," Moraes said. The court may have posted the summons to Twitter and tagged Musk directly in an attempt to show Musk that it was not interested in his opinion.

It is unlikely that Twitter will comply. Musk tweeted that Moraes "repeatedly broke the laws he had sworn to enforce" and posted "eyes are a window to the soul", in response to a question from one of his supporters about why Moraes’ eyes "look evil".

The order hasn't fazed him at all. He has spent the last few days tweeting about the doom America will face if it elects Kamala Harris as president, the "woke brain virus," and tweeting AI generated images to Musk critic and author Steven King. We'll find out what happens tonight when Twitter's limit expires. For now, game developers in Brazil are hastily tweeting about other social media platforms.