Court gives 5 days for X to validate its Brazil legal representative

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Brazilian Supreme Court gave Elon Musk-owned social platform X five days to present documents validating its new legal representative in the country, a court decision showed on Saturday.

X lawyers said late on Friday that it had named a legal representative in Brazil, addressing one of the demands imposed by the court to allow the social platform to resume operations in the country.

In his Saturday decision, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes gave five days for X to provide commercial registries and other documents proving that X formally signed Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as its Brazil legal representative.

Brazil's top court in late August ordered mobile and internet service providers to block X in Brazil, and users were cut off within hours, after X did not comply with court demands including naming a legal representative.

Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a legal representative to operate in the country. The representative would assume the legal responsibilities for the firm locally.

X had a legal representative in Brazil until mid-August, when it decided to close its offices and fire its staff in the country.

The move followed a months-long dispute between Musk and Moraes over the firm's non-compliance with court orders demanding the platform to take action against the spread of hate speech, which the billionaire denounced as censorship.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Writing by Andre Romani; Editing by Alistair Bell)