Elon Musk's X circumvents court-ordered ban in Brazil | X

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, became accessible to many users in Brazil on Wednesday after an update to its communications network circumvented a ban ordered by the country's Supreme Court.

The X update used third-party cloud services, particularly security firm Cloudflare, and allowed some Brazilian users to access X even without a virtual private network via a route outside the country, according to Abrint, the Brazilian association of internet and telecommunications providers.

The number of Brazilians accessing X is unknown, according to Abrint. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I think the change was probably intentional. Why would X use a third-party service that ends up being slower than their own?” says Basilio Perez, board member at Abrint.

Last month, after a months-long dispute between X owner Elon Musk and Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court ordered Brazil's mobile and internet providers to block the platform. Access to X was blocked within hours. Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink had initially said it would continue to provide access to X despite the ban, but then retracted that statement.

Perez added that because of technological changes and Cloudflare's ubiquity, it will be difficult to block X a second time. This means that banning access to Cloudflare's services could put government agencies and financial services providers at risk: “You can't just block Cloudflare because that would block half the internet.”

Any revised order from Brazil's national telecommunications agency Anatel, which is responsible for implementing the court ruling, will have to be more specific, according to Perez. Anatel has acknowledged the problem and is working to notify first content delivery network providers and then telecom companies to block access to X in Brazil again, according to a person familiar with the situation. The same person said it was not clear how long it would take for providers to comply with the order.

One day before X became available again, the White House criticized the Brazilian digital embargo.

“When it comes to social media, we have made it very clear that we believe people should have access to social media. It is a form of freedom of expression,” said spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre in response to a question from Raquel Krähenbühl, a reporter for Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo.

Musk responded to the statement via X, writing: “Unexpected but welcome.” On Monday, the White House called Musk “irresponsible” for posting a tweet asking why “nobody is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” He later deleted the tweet.