The social network X bowed to the Brazilian courts on Thursday by making its service inaccessible in the country again, after creating a surprise the day before by managing to bypass its blocking.
Some of the platform’s approximately 22 million users in Latin America’s largest country have had access to it again since Wednesday via the application on their mobile phones.
However, on August 30, Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the blocking of the social network owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, for having ignored a series of court decisions related to the fight against disinformation.
On Thursday, “a little before 4 p.m., X stopped using the service” of the cybersecurity company Cloudflare that had allowed him to bypass the blocking order, Basilio Rodriguez Perez of the Brazilian Association of Internet Service Providers (ABRINT), an industry group, told AFP.
Now the platform “is blocked” again, he added.
AFP journalists noted that access which had become possible again on Wednesday via mobile phone was now blocked.
In their standoff with Elon Musk, the Brazilian authorities therefore score a point, after having been clearly taken by surprise, and challenged, by the surprise return of X.
In a ruling made public a few hours earlier on Thursday, Judge Moraes had ordered the social network to block its service again or face a fine of 5 million reais (around 820,000 euros) per day.
According to him, X “showed himself to be recalcitrant, unlawfully, persistently and with the intention of not respecting judicial orders.”
The group assured on Wednesday evening that the restoration of its service was an “involuntary” effect of a change of server and would remain “temporary”.
Right-left battle
But the Brazilian telecommunications agency (ANATEL) said in a statement on Thursday that “the behavior of the X network showed a deliberate intention to circumvent the Supreme Court’s order.” The agency assured that it would take “the necessary measures in the event of new attempts to circumvent the suspension.”
“Thanks to the support of telecommunications operators and the company Cloudflare, it was possible to identify a mechanism that, we hope, […] will be able to restore the blocking” of the platform, ANATEL had specified.
On Wednesday, ABRINT explained the technical operation which had enabled X to be accessible to users again.
“Application X has been updated […] during the night [de mardi à mercredi]which resulted in a significant change in its structure,” she reported.
X’s use of Cloudflare, which uses constantly changing IP addresses, “makes blocking the application much more complicated,” the association explained.
Until now, IP addresses (identifying Internet users’ devices) were fixed and easily susceptible to blocking.
The platform’s suspension has sparked a heated debate in Brazil and beyond about the limits of freedom of expression on social media.
Elon Musk has slammed the blockage, calling Judge Moraes a “dictator.” The Brazilian right led by former head of state Jair Bolsonaro has followed suit.
The suspension was, however, supported by the government of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the name of respect for the law.