SAO PAULO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz

Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday that billionaire Elon Musk

must respect the rulings of the country's Supreme Court, amid an

ongoing feud that left social media giant X on the brink of

being taken down in Brazil.

X was still working normally in Brazil on Friday

morning, but the platform said on Thursday that it expected

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to order a shutdown

"soon," after a court-imposed deadline for the company to

identify a legal representative in Brazil

expired

.

Amid the

underlying feud over X, the court also blocked the local

bank accounts of Musk's Starlink satellite internet firm, which

a source told Reuters was a response to the lack of legal

representatives in Brazil for the social media platform.

Under Brazilian laws governing the internet, social

media must have a representative based in the country. To shut

down X's operations in Brazil, justice Moraes would have to

order telecommunication companies to

stop carrying X traffic

.

Users, however, would still be able to dodge the

blockage by using VPNs.