Why did Brazil block X?

Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the closure of site X in Brazil, with a market of 21 million users.The decision, in compliance with the law, brings attention to freedom of expression.

It has been known for some time that the Brazil was an important country for X, or the social network that it used to be called Twitter and now it is driven by the entrepreneur Elon Musk, but the demonstration of the weight of Brazilian users in the platform was revealed this weekend, when the country's government announced the closure of the social network.In a few hours, very successful accounts of all kinds said goodbye (goodbye?) to their audience of followers, precisely because they are managed by Brazilian people.Not even the use of VPN, software capable of circumventing certain internet blocks by making users appear to come from other countries, will be able to help X in Brazil, since the law punishes their use with a fine that can reach eight thousand euros per day.

A market from 21 million users, essential for a social network that is losing users and advertising investors, disappeared in a few hours.How was this possible?At the center of the story, a person, Musk, who since purchasing Twitter in 2022 for 44 billion dollars has used it to relaunch himself as a global champion of the new right, as well as protector of freedom of expression, threatened by governments and so-called culture "woke”.

The Brazilian affair began a few months ago, although the roots of discord run deep and perhaps date back to last elections in Brazil, during which Musk spent himself supporting Jair Bolsonaro, president ultrapopulist, who then lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, progressive.The bond, almost one bromance, between Musk and Bolsonaro is part of the campaign support of the American right for the former president against the current government.

Direct confrontation is inevitable, therefore, which has arrived at mid August, when Musk announced that X would “close its operations” in Brazil due to “censorship requests” received from the Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, a name that has haunted Musk and his team ever since.In doing so, however, the company was effectively left without a legal representative in the country, going against local law:X was given a few weeks to appoint a representative, she refused to do so and the law was enforced, inevitably, making social media unreachable in the country.

Attacks and censorship on

Over the course of this past weekend, the escalation continued with opening an account on X called “Alexandre Files”, run by Judge Moraes, while Musk himself did the same from his very popular profile.Alexandre Files even has published the official documents received from the government and therefore made the original "censorship requests" known:it's about eight accounts of right-wing politicians, activists and influencers, including the senator Marcos Ribeiro do Val (who took part in the 2023 attack on the Brazilian Congress, inspired by the Trumpian one in 2020) and Daniel Silveira, a former policeman already arrested for threatening members of the country's Supreme Court, as he wrote journalist Ryan Broderick.

There is actually something behind these squabbles much more:not just a question of principle, although it is the daughter of a flawed interpretation of the concept of freedom of expression, but above all a political-identity battle for which he seems ready to lose a lot, in economic terms.Other reconstructions have told how last April X had accepted the Brazilian requests, before Musk changed his mind, also because it was defined “outlaw” by Moraes, who condemned “the massive spread of disinformation, hate speech and attacks on the democratic rule of law” in the platform.

X's collaboration with governments

Before praising Musk for his defense of freedom of expression, we must remember that X has been collaborating with governments for a long time, often illiberal, and has accepted 83 percent of censorship requests from governments such as Turkey and India, which have requested and obtained the limitation or removal of unwelcome content, even during election campaigns, according to El País.

X is then not available in China, a country dear to Musk as a market for electric cars, albeit shrinking due to therise of local brands, and for the presence of factories Tesla that produce models sold all over the world in China.But above all, in recent weeks, the names of the investors who helped Musk buy the company:among these they appear people connected to the royal family Saudi and to oligarchs Russians. Not exactly examples of freedom.

Finally, last Sunday, Starlink, a satellite connection service from SpaceX, Musk's company, he announced triumphantly of wanting to refuse to respect Brazilian laws, effectively opening a breach to the "ban" of the social network in the country.It seemed like the beginning of a new battle between Musk and the Brazilian government but a few days later too Starlink she thought better of it and retraced her steps: X will remain “off” in Brazil in the name of a strange idea of ​​freedom of expression, which apparently does not apply to Türkiye, India And China.In Brazil, however, yes.