X is offline again in Brazil: ‘Bypassing the ban was a mistake’

This article was last updated on September 20, 2024

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X is offline again in Brazil: ‘Bypassing the ban was a mistake’

X is offline again in Brazil. Despite a ban, the social medium was updated earlier this week to use again, but according to the company that was a mistake. The judge threatens with a fine.

The social medium became late last month taken offline by Brazil’s highest court in a long-running conflict over disinformation. Brazil requires that X appoint a representative in the country to do business with. For example, it should be able to take inflammatory messages offline.

As long as there is no official point of contact, X must be blocked by providers in the country. X owner Musk calls that censorship.

Bypassed

After an update, X was suddenly available for use by Brazilians again on Wednesday. Where an account was previously linked to a fixed IP address, the connection was now constantly changed via another provider, making it possible to circumvent the judicial blockage.

Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes called this a deliberate attempt by the company to evade his order and held Musk personally responsible. He therefore imposed a fine of more than 900,000 euros and threatened to repeat it daily as long as the company did not comply.

‘mistake’

X now says that the provider was accidentally switched and reversed the change within a day. “It was an unintended and temporary resumption of services,” it said. It is unclear whether the fine will remain in place.

In a response to the Reuters news agency, X’s lawyers in Brazil say that the appointment of a legal representative in Brazil will come “very soon”. The company is also said to have started removing material that the judges consider undesirable.