Late on Friday afternoon, Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has been engaged in a dispute with X’s owner, Elon Musk, since April – ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in the country, “until all court orders … are complied with, fines are duly paid, and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country”.
He gave Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency 24 hours to enforce the decision. Once notified, the agency must pass the order on to the more than 20,000 broadband internet providers in the country, each of which must block X.
In an interview with the TV channel Globonews, the agency’s president, Carlos Manuel Baigorri, said the order had already been passed on to internet providers.
“Since we’re talking about more than 20,000 companies, each will have its own implementation time, but … we expect that probably over the weekend all companies will be able to implement the block,” he said.
Justice Moraes also summoned Apple and Google to “implement technological barriers to prevent the use of the X app by users of the iOS and Android systems” and to block the use of virtual private network (VPN) applications.
The decision imposes a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,800) on individuals and companies that attempt to continue using X via VPN.
sounds feasible except the “blocking the use of vpn apps” part?
At best that’s just unclear. Blocking VPNs isn’t impossible, just impractical. And it’s not like Brazil just became China. At worst, the just made accessing X impracticality expensive for its users— which, in Brazil, is a lot of people. In typical Brazilian fashion, they’re hitting Elon in the wallet.
Yeah, that line was particularly concerning. I’m all for watching Elon get a Brazilian beatdown, but that feels like a pretty large overstep.
Justice Moraes had also said that any person in Brazil who tried to still use X via common privacy software called a virtual private network, or VPN, could be fined nearly $9,000 a day. But after swift backlash across Brazil, including from academics who have supported him, he reversed that move in an amended order late Friday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-x-blocked.html
He went back on that part (in Portuguese):
can you elaborate?
as it is, your comment is not comprehensible. Why what? Whose marketing? Marketing for VPN? “Magic bullet” for what purpose?
VPNs can be blocked by governments or worse, the data can be decrypted giving you a false sense of security. In any case if the governments wants to it can easily see if you connect to a VPN and give you trouble just for that. Same goes for TOR.
Obrigado
When you’re too corrupt, even for Brazil, that really does say something.
They’re more WhatsApp people than Twitter people anyway.
But this is pretty standard legal stuff. Musk just doesn’t think he has to send a lawyer down to argue his case. He can blow it off, thinking that he’s simply above the law.
It isn’t even corruption, per say. It’s just entitlement slamming into another state’s basic sovereignty.
Well, maybe I’m just too GenX, but, to me, that’s a distinction without a difference. WhatsApp is texting with extra steps, and Twitter is for Nazis. I’ve never used the former and gave up the latter along with FB and insta early on during covid. Reddit was my last social whatever, and I jumped that ship last June for this last shout.
I’ve never had tiktaky or snapsnore. Most of my time on my phone is spent either here or listening to news podcasts— which is pretty much what I did as a teenager: listening to NPR as my morning routine then a news/music mix throughout the day.
Hmmm…. How unusual and a little confusing to be both impressed and disappointed in oneself… well that’s why some of our best paid scientists are furiously genetically engineering new strains of cannabis! So I don’t have to deal with this shit!
WhatsApp is texting with extra steps, and Twitter is for Nazis.
No shortage of Nazis on Whatsapp. And not the Discount Donny Groypers, either. Real Boys From Brazil. People with an actual Nazi pedigree.
How unusual and a little confusing to be both impressed and disappointed in oneself
Eh. We all eat from the trough of ideology.
They’re more WhatsApp people than Twitter people anyway.
I thought they are orkut people?
I’m kind of on the fence with this one.
As much as I dislike Twitter/X and it’s owner; their ‘crime’ is refusing to silence the political opponents of those currently in power, then further refusing to pay fines for that decision… Decisions, at least in principle, I agree with.
That said: I haven’t actually seen the content that’s at the center of this dispute; the posts of those political opponents. I’m also not very familiar with Brazils politics, so perhaps there’s context I’m missing.
musk has no problems with taking down political opponents’ xitter accounts when the request is coming from “right wing” governments (rather authoritarian or far-right)
he doesn’t care about freedom of speech, he only cares about his kind of speech. If he refused all take down requests, i would agree with you
As far as I understand this is a right-wing authoritarian gov silencing left-wing opponent’s.
Am i mistaken?
/pre-post edit: Yes, yes I am.
That certainly throws out any bit of sympathy I may of had… Though I still think they made the right decision to refuse to comply.
¯\(-_-)/¯ oh well.
their ‘crime’ is refusing to silence the political opponents of those currently in power, then further refusing to pay fines for that decision…
Isn’t it natural: if you refuse to obey numerous court orders and pay your fines, you’ll get even worse court orders. This is not exactly the way to challenge the reasons for these other orders.
If that’s what you think is wrong with Twitter, you might be one of the bad guys
that’s what you think is wrong with Twitter
?
What is ‘that’ exactly…?
I’ve said nothing about what’s wrong with twitter. I’ve said I agree with refusing to silence political opposition for those in power, at least in principle. I’ve also, at least tried, to be pretty clear I’m likely missing some contex; so that may be a bit of a misinterpretation of the situation.
It seems that the strongest justification is that they closed their local branch, and have no legal representation here in Brazil, which is required by law for them to be able to operate.
Wait, there are 20,000 ISPs!?
I’m guessing they mean regional subsidiaries, Brazil is big, but not that big.
Brazil has a lot of small, very small, ISPs. There was a law some time back that boosted the market for smaller ISPs. On my street I have a small ISP that only runs cables and internet to a portion of my neighborhood. However, those smaller ISPs are usually buying their connection from the few giant companies in the business and redistributing it through their own means. Crazy part though: often they have better prices and support when compared to the giant ISPs they’re buying their internet access from.
