Brazil, home to the world’s fifth-largest digital population, saw the popular social network X go offline after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws led to a Supreme Court-imposed ban.
Millions of Brazilian X users were abruptly cut off from the platform on Saturday morning as internet providers and mobile carriers began enforcing the ban. Attempts to access the network resulted in messages such as, “Seems like you lost connectivity. We’ll keep retrying.”
The shutdown has prompted a mass migration to rival platform Bluesky, which reported a surge of 500,000 new users over two days. “Welcome to Bluesky!” the company greeted its new members in Portuguese. Among those making the switch was Felipe Neto, one of Brazil’s most prominent social media influencers with over 17 million X followers. Neto reminded users that compliance with local laws is mandatory, even if one disagrees with them.
The ban on X, which boasts over 22 million users in Brazil, marks the peak of a tense, politically charged standoff between Brazil’s Supreme Court and Musk. The conflict intensified as Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the ban, sought to force X to remove far-right and anti-democratic content following the January 2023 uprising in Brasília by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Musk, who has aligned himself with right-wing figures like Bolsonaro and Donald Trump, resisted these efforts, accusing Moraes of stifling free speech and censoring conservative voices. Musk’s public attacks on Moraes, including calling him “Voldemort,” escalated as the conflict grew more heated.
The situation reached a tipping point on Thursday when Musk ignored a 24-hour deadline to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil after closing X’s local office in August. In his ruling on Friday, Moraes accused X of operating as a “lawless territory,” allowing the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and anti-democratic content.
By early Saturday, X had gone offline in Brazil, with users noticing the shutdown shortly after midnight. Musk continued his attacks on Moraes, though his messages were inaccessible to Brazilian users without a virtual private network (VPN).
Right-wing figures rallied to Musk’s defense, highlighting the growing ties between Brazil’s far-right and the tech billionaire. Meanwhile, progressive voices celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision, emphasizing the importance of respecting national laws. Left-wing congresswoman Erika Hilton, among others, announced her move to Bluesky just before the ban took effect, declaring, “Long live the rule of law and national sovereignty.”
