RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Social media platform .
Internet service providers began restoring access to their platforms after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes approved the lifting of X’s suspension on Tuesday.
“Twitter is alive,” Lucas dos Santos Consoli, known as Lascas of X, wrote to his more than 7 million followers on the platform.
“I’m glad that the platform decided to follow Brazilian law and finally adapted. After all, I’ve been using this app for almost 15 years, so I can’t deny that I missed it.” Mr. Auld, 31, told The Associated Press.
After a month-long dispute with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts, and misinformation, De Moraes ordered Company X shut down on August 30. Mr. Musk has disparaged Mr. de Moraes, calling him an authoritarian and a censor, but his decisions, including Mr. X’s nationwide suspension, have been repeatedly upheld by colleagues.
Mr. Musk’s company ultimately accepted all of Mr. de Moraes’ demands. These included blocking certain accounts from the platform, paying outstanding fines, and appointing legal representatives. For failing to do the latter, he was suspended.
Elon Musk’s X Company refuses to appoint local legal representative, Brazilian government begins blocking
Brazil, an online nation of 213 million people, is one of X’s largest markets, with an estimated user base of 20 million to 40 million people.
“X is proud to return to Brazil,” the company said in a statement posted to its Global Government Affairs account. “Throughout this process, it has been paramount that we provide tens of millions of Brazilians with access to our essential platform. Everywhere we operate, we protect freedom of speech within the limits of the law. I will continue to protect it.”
The Aug. 30 ban came two days after the company announced it would lay off all of its remaining employees in Brazil. Mr.
Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a local legal representative to receive notice of the court decision and promptly take the necessary actions, in particular deleting the account in the case of Company X. .
Sleeping Giants Brazil, an activist platform that fights fake news and hate speech, said X’s return to Brazil marks an “important victory for Brazilian democracy.”
“We understand that the steps taken to ensure that Company X complies with the Supreme Court’s ruling set an important, albeit harsh, precedent. Corporations are not above the law,” the company said in a statement.
Some of Brazil X’s users have migrated to other platforms such as Meta’s Threads and primarily Bluesky. It is unclear how many of them will return to X.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Bluesky reported that it currently has 10.6 million users and continues to see strong growth in Brazil. Bruski has appointed a legal representative in the South American country.
“Please never bring back eX,” Bluesky developer Paul Frazee wrote on the platform on Tuesday.
Brazil is not the first country to ban X, but such drastic measures are generally reserved for authoritarian regimes. The platform and its predecessor, Twitter, are banned in Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela, and Turkmenistan. Other countries, including Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have previously suspended X, usually to quell dissent or unrest.
X’s conflict with Brazil bears some similarities to the company’s dealings with the Indian government three years ago, when it was still called Twitter and before Musk bought it for $44 billion. . In 2021, India arrested Twitter (and Mehta’s Facebook and WhatsApp) employees for failing to comply with government requests to remove posts related to the farmer protests that rocked the country. I threatened.
Mateo Cerbers, Latin America and Spain analyst at research firm eMarketer, said it’s not surprising that Mr Musk decided to reverse course in Brazil after publicly criticizing Mr de Moraes. said.
“This move is pragmatic, likely due to the economic impact of losing access to millions of users in the world’s third-largest market and the associated loss of millions of dollars in advertising revenue.” It is believed that this was done,” Sabers said.
“X may not be a top priority for most advertisers in Brazil, but the platform needs advertisers more than it needs,” he said.
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Olututai reported from San Francisco.