SpaceX has warned its employees not to travel to Brazil for either work or personal reasons, according to an internal email seen by Bloomberg.
In the email, which was sent at the end of last week, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell wrote to employees to “convey the seriousness of this situation” and told them to “avoid any travel — for work or personal reasons — to Brazil.”
SpaceX is also attempting to relocate its few non-Brazilian employees who work in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Reports did not specify what risk SpaceX believed its employees faced in Brazil, but the move comes as the clash between Elon Musk and the nation’s Supreme Court continues to intensify.
On the weekend, Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld a decision by one of its members, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, to suspend access to the billionaire’s social media platform X.
Moraes said X had failed to comply with court orders about content moderation and refused to pay fines exceeding $3 million.
The social media platform had not appointed a new legal representative to respond to government requests about removing content supporting former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Moraes has headed efforts to crack down on “fake news,” including tightening free speech regulations, since 2019, when he opened an investigation into disinformation generated during Bolsonaro’s government.
He issued an order to ban certain X accounts that helped spread election misinformation in April, which Musk vocally opposed.
The billionaire has taken to X to lambast Moraes, calling him “an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge.”
Brazil’s court has also taken action against Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by SpaceX that provides connectivity to over 200,000 Brazilian customers.
Starlink’s bank accounts have been frozen, and the company has been prevented from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.
Starlink said in a post on X that it was doing everything possible to keep customers in Brazil connected and had begun legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court to reverse the sanctions.
“We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution,” the company said.
The social media company Telegram was also banned in Brazil last year for failing to cooperate with requests to block certain profiles.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside regular US working hours.
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