RIO DE JANEIRO -- Some Brazilian users reconnected with X on Wednesday despite the Supreme Court's recent nationwide ban, the result of the social network apparently changing the way its servers are accessed.The reunion may be short-lived, however.Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked nationwide on Aug.30 after months of tension with billionaire Elon Musk surrounding orders to take down accounts and the limits of free speech in Brazil.
He also established fines on anyone using virtual private networks (VPN) to access the platform.Former president Jair Bolsonaro celebrated the return of the social network.He has sided with Musk in the feud with de Moraes and sought to portray the ban as censorship from an overzealous judge.“I congratulate you all for the pressure that makes the wheels turn in defence of democracy in Brazil,” Bolsonaro posted Wednesday on X.Some Brazilian X users trumpeted the platform's return — with several addressing de Moraes directly, vowing that they weren't using a VPN.
There have been no reports of fines being levied against people using VPNs.But X is a mainstream social media platform – even if it may be home to some extremist content – and it is not yet clear whether Brazil’s ban would be enough for San Francisco, California-based Cloudflare to abandon it.De Moraes could also attempt to force Musk’s hand by going after his satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, as he has done since the ban, said Rafael Mafei, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo.Last Friday, de Moraes seized about $3 million from bank accounts belonging to X and Starlink to collect what X owed in fines.“Under normal circumstances, anyone else who openly took active steps to obstruct judicial measures and investigations, as Musk is doing, would possibly have already had their arrest decreed in Brazil,” Mafei said.___Ortutay reported from San Francisco.
