A block on the social media platform X in Brazil came into effect last weekend a Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the suspension following a months-long standoff with Elon Musk over disinformation. X shut down its business operations in Brazil earlier this month rather than obey an order from the judge to block dozens of accounts being investigated over fake news or hate speech, an order Musk denounced as censorship.

A block on Elon Musk’s X social network in Brazil started to take effect early Saturday after a Supreme Court judge ordered its suspension.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes handed down the ruling after Musk failed to comply with an order to name a new legal representative for the company.

X, formerly known as Twitter, is now no longer possible for some users in the South American country, who were presented with a message asking them to reload the browser without being able to log in successfully.

Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, reacted with fury to the judge’s order, branding Moraes an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge” and accusing him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”

“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” the billionaire, who has become increasingly aligned with right-wing politics, wrote on X.

The pair have been locked in an ongoing, high-profile feud for months as Moraes leads a battle against disinformation in Brazil.

Musk has previously declared himself a “free speech absolutist,” but since he took over the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022, he has been accused of turning it into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.

He is a vocal supporter of former US president Donald Trump’s bid to regain the White House.

Moraes ordered the “immediate, complete and comprehensive suspension of the operation of” X in the country, telling the national communications agency to take “all necessary measures” to implement the order within 24 hours and further threatened a fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) to anyone who used “technological subterfuges” to get around the block, such as a VPN.

The micro-blogging platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil.