After a nationwide ban on Elon Musk’s X social media platform went into effect in Brazil, some Brazilian users have reported regaining access to the service on September 17th. However, X Global Government Affairs has clarified that this restored service is only temporary and is due to a change of server providers.
According to X’s statement, the recent shift to Cloudflare, a content delivery network and server hosting company, unintentionally led to the restoration of service for Brazilian residents. Spokespeople from the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers (ABRINT) suspect that Musk is utilizing Cloudflare to route traffic to the social media company, effectively concealing the platform’s IP address.
The social media company has informed Brazilian users that the restoration is expected to be short-lived and that the service will likely become inaccessible again in the near future.
Initially, there was speculation that Brazilian X users could still access the social media platform through Musk’s Starlink satellite network. However, these hopes were dashed when Starlink announced its compliance with the court order and its decision to block access to X in the country.
As part of the comprehensive order issued by Alexandre De Moraes, Brazilian users attempting to access X through a virtual private network (VPN) would face fines of 50,000 Brazilian reais ($8,900) per day. This stipulation faced significant criticism within Brazil, with some legal experts stating that it would be nearly impossible to prove that residents were using VPNs to circumvent the law. VPN provider Surfshark echoed this sentiment, stating that enforcing such laws would be challenging from a technical standpoint.
Musk’s conflict with Brazilian officials has brought the issue of online free speech into sharper focus and has driven users to embrace decentralized alternatives. Shortly after the X ban in Brazil, Bluesky, a decentralized social media platform, reported a surge of 1 million users within three days. Bluesky also attributed the increased traffic to the X ban and revealed that daily peak traffic had increased by 15 times.
In an interview, Yat Siu, the founder of X Hall of Flame, expressed that Elon Musk’s influence is equivalent to having 100,000 followers.