Judge in Brazil orders X to block access or face $900k fine

X was able to bypass the official block on Wednesday, allowing many users to regain access to the platform

Brazil's Supreme Court on Thursday imposed a daily fine of over $900,000 on Elon Musk's X social media platform for defying a nationwide ban.

The court's decision came after X unexpectedly resumed operations in Brazil on Wednesday, circumventing the ban through a technical workaround involving third-party cloud services.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been involved in a series of legal clashes with Musk over X's content moderation policies, accused the platform of "recalcitrant" behaviour, stating that it had unlawfully and persistently failed to comply with court orders.

The dispute between X and the Brazilian government began earlier this year when de Moraes ordered the platform to block certain accounts accused of spreading misinformation and hate speech during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Despite repeated attempts to resolve the issue, the legal battle intensified, culminating in de Moraes issuing an ultimatum that X must appoint a legal representative before the court or face suspension.

Musk refused to comply, leading to the app's ban three weeks ago. Additionally, the court also warned Brazilian citizens that would face a $9,000 fine for using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X in Brazil.

On Wednesday, X was able to bypass the official block, allowing many users to regain access to the platform.

Abrint, the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers, said the reactivation of X occurred when the social media platform began routing internet traffic through cloud services, specifically those provided by security firm Cloudflare.

This shift allowed some users to bypass the ban without the need for a VPN.

In a statement issued from its global government affairs account, X disclosed that the restoration of access in Brazil had been unintended.

"When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America was no longer accessible to our team," the platform said.

"To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users. While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again shortly, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil."

Basilio Perez, a board member at Abrint, said the update could be perceived as a deliberate move by the social media platform.

"Why would X use a third-party service that ends up being slower than its own? I believe the change was probably intentional," Perez stated.

He also warned that the technical complexity involved in blocking X again could prove challenging, as cutting off access to Cloudflare might impact critical services across Brazil, including government agencies and financial institutions.

"You can't just block Cloudflare because you would block half of the internet," Perez explained.

Many websites, including those of the Brazilian government and banks, rely on Cloudflare services.

According to a report from The New York Times, Cloudflare has been cooperating with Anatel - Brazil's national telecommunications agency - and has agreed to isolate X's traffic to make it easier for ISPs to restore the block without affecting other websites.

Abrint has advised that ISPs refrain from taking independent action and wait for instructions from Anatel.