Brazil blocks Starlink bank accounts

[pfannkuchen]

Isn’t Brazil like notoriously light on rule of law? I don’t feel surprised or outraged by this, more like— what did you expect?

[protastus]

Alternative take: what would you expect by consistently and publicly antagonizing a supreme court justice?

[gamblor956]

Legally this is known as "piercing the veil" and if generally reserved for situations like this where someone is attempting to use a corporation to evade responsibility for law breaking.

[ImJamal]

Am I understanding this correctly? The judge didn't like what X did (or didn't do) so he is making moves against StarLink, which would allow users to potentially bypass the censorship this judge is pushing for.

[xinayder]

It's not a question whether the judge disliked what X did or not. They were subpoenaed to block the accounts engaged in anti-democratic speech. Failing to do so, X would have to pay a 2k USD daily fine until they cooperated.

X decided to challenge, Moraes raised the fine to 20k USD daily, they continued defying the order, until they closed the company thinking this is a legal way to circumvent the debt they owe to the state.

Moraes found out that there are links between Starlink and X (Musk), so he decided to go after Starlink instead, blocking their bank accounts until X pays what they owe to the Brazilian state.

[barryrandall]

As I understand it, X was fined, didn't pay, and the judge pierced a few corporate veils to discover that Starlink and X share a majority owner.

[ChrisArchitect]

[dupe]

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41392962

[mlindner]

That post is flagged though.

[stuaxo]

What are the lumps on his face in that picture?

[mikedelfino]

> the rule of law is an afterthought

Are you implying that, given all your knowledge of Brazilian law, implicating Starlink to pay for X fines is against the law?

[sabbaticaldev]

what rule of law? Elon musk closed Brazil’s xitter office to not respond to it. This is real corruption

[mistrial9]

Starlink is widely used in deforestation and mining in Brazil. Elon Musk personally flew to Brazil to promote it (with Balsenero?), despite the predictions that Starlink would be used that way. The political pitch was that schools in the far reaches would use it - that has measurably failed to materialize. Meanwhile, Federal raids on gold mining operations show Starlink transceivers routinely.

source: Brazilian activist report

[blackhawkC17]

The issue is not Starlink. It's that the Brazilian government is too inept and corrupt to tackle illegal mining in its backyard. Many countries have huge landmasses (US, Canada, China, etc.), yet no one gets away with something as brash as illegal mining.

[prepend]

Chainsaws are used as well. And fossil fuels. And electricity.

I’m sure if the Feds raid gold mining they’ll find some copper wires and other infrastructure.

[alden5]

that's not a source, could you link the report?

[tacker2000]

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