VPNs on the rise in Brazil after X ban, despite government threats

X (formerly Twitter) has been banned in Brazil after a long battle between Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over moderation concerns. The public is trying to circumvent the ban by using VPNs, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

After a months-long feud between X CEO Elon Musk and the Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over various issues, including free speech, misinformation on the platform, and reinstating far-right accounts, X has been banned in Brazil.

The ban's origins are long and complex but ultimately rooted in Musk and de Moraes's conflicting ideologies.

According to AP Newsroom, Brazilian officials can demand that any social media platform remove content from its site. Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” believes this act is a form of censorship, as he has refused to take down content from far-right groups, Business Insider reported.

Furthermore, Musk failed to meet a deadline set by de Moraes and refused to name a legal representative who would deal with the Brazilian government's requests to suspend certain accounts on X.

All of this resulted in de Moraes’ decision to block X’s activity in the country, and the Brazilian people are feeling the strain.

The World Population Review, an online database that provides information about world demographics, has estimated that roughly 23 million Brazilian people use X. However, this figure could well be higher as Brazil has one of the highest internet access rates in the world.

Now, users are trying to circumvent the ban by using VPNs or different social media platforms to express themselves.

Similar to the Instagram ban in Turkey, Brazilians aren’t able to freely access the site with VPNs as they face huge fines for accessing the platform.

The New York Times and X users have reported that the Brazilian government is planning to impose fines for those who access X using VPNs. People could be forced to pay 50,000 reais or roughly $9000, which just isn’t viable.

Brazilian politician Nikolas Ferreira, who is associated with the ‘Liberal Party’ in Brazil, posted on X confirming the fines, saying that de Moraes has imposed the hourly fine of $R 50,000.

Alexandre de Moraes just ordered 𝕏 to be suspended immediately and blocked by Brazilian internet service providers. He also imposed a R$ 50.000 per hour fine for VPN use to access 𝕏. Dictatorship.

undefined Nikolas Ferreira (@nikolas_dm) August 30, 2024

Despite the government's threats, it has been reported that the use of VPNs has skyrocketed following the ban.

Yet many people have heeded the warning and have opted to switch to different social media platforms like Meta’s Threads and the US-based decentralized platform Bluesky.

Bluesky reported an additional 500,000 users joining the platform over the past few days.

Since the news about the ban spread, Musk and other free speech warriors have taken to X to express their concerns.

Musk has reposted many people’s thoughts surrounding the ban and stubbornly affirms his opinion that this act is a form of censorship and ultimately threatens free speech – an idea that has permeated the platform since the change over from Twitter to X.