**Breaking News: X Makes a Comeback in Brazil Despite Ban**
**RIO DE JANEIRO** – Some Brazilian users reconnected with X on Wednesday despite the Supreme Court’s recent nationwide ban, the result of the social network apparently changing the way its servers are accessed. The reunion may be short-lived, however.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked nationwide on Aug. 30 after months of tension with billionaire Elon Musk surrounding orders to take down accounts and the limits of free speech in Brazil. He also established fines on anyone using virtual private networks (VPN) to access the platform.
That rendered X effectively inaccessible in the country until Wednesday, with AP journalists among those who had access. Experts examining X’s IP addresses said there are indications that the company has begun routing users through the servers of Cloudflare, a content delivery network, en route to its own.
“The service that Elon Musk’s social network has started using works like a ‘digital shield’ that protects the company’s servers,” Pedro Diogenes, Latin America’s technical director for CLM, a distributor that focuses on cybersecurity. It acts as a proxy between users and X’s servers, filtering traffic and preventing the original Internet Protocol (IP) address from being recognized, Diogenes told The Associated Press.
Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel said in a statement that it is looking into the situation and will report its findings to the Supreme Court, and that there has been no change to de Moraes’ ruling. A panel of fellow justices later upheld his decision, though it hasn’t yet gone before the court’s full bench and his VPN fine in particular has faced blowback, including from the nation’s bar association.
The Supreme Court declined to comment on possible actions it could take when contacted by the AP, and Cloudflare didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk, who often uses his platform to disparage de Moraes, hadn’t commented on X by late afternoon.
Former president Jair Bolsonaro celebrated the return of the social network. He has sided with Musk in the feud with de Moraes and sought to portray the ban as censorship from an overzealous judge.
“I congratulate you all for the pressure that makes the wheels turn in defence of democracy in Brazil,” Bolsonaro posted Wednesday on X.
Some Brazilian X users trumpeted the platform’s return — with several addressing de Moraes directly, vowing that they weren’t using a VPN. There have been no reports of fines being levied against people using VPNs.
Cloudflare, a security company that prides itself on providing services to websites regardless of their content, has a history of protecting sites other companies won’t touch. But only to a point.
But X is a mainstream social media platform – even if it may be home to some extremist content – and it is not yet clear whether Brazil’s ban would be enough for San Francisco, California-based Cloudflare to abandon it.
Cloudflare has a reputation for cooperating with governments, however, and so may comply with an order from the Supreme Court to cease serving as X’s proxy, David Nemer, who specializes in the anthropology of technology at the University of Virginia, told the AP.
Ordering internet service providers to block Cloudflare would be impossible, since thousands of Brazilian companies depend on it, Nemer previously wrote on Bluesky, another social media platform.
De Moraes could also attempt to force Musk’s hand by going after his satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, as he has done since the ban, said Rafael Mafei, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo.
Last Friday, de Moraes seized about $3 million from bank accounts belonging to X and Starlink to collect what X owed in fines.
Legal analysts have questioned de Moraes’ prior decision to freeze Starlink’s bank account until it paid for X’s fines. While Musk owns both X and SpaceX, the two companies are separate entities. But de Moraes has shown that he considers the two companies to belong to the same economic group, Mafei said.
**Stay Tuned for More Updates**
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This blog provides insights into the recent resurgence of the social network X in Brazil, despite a nationwide ban imposed by the Supreme Court. Despite efforts to block access to X, through the use of VPNs, some users successfully reconnected to the platform. The blog discusses the involvement of prominent figures like Elon Musk and the reaction of Brazilian authorities to the return of X.
The blog also delves into the technical aspects of how X managed to circumvent the ban by routing users through Cloudflare’s servers. It explores the implications of this move and the challenges faced by regulatory bodies in enforcing the ban.
Furthermore, the blog highlights the legal and financial consequences faced by X, including fines imposed by the Supreme Court and the seizure of funds from bank accounts. The potential repercussions for Elon Musk and his other ventures, such as Starlink, are also discussed.
Overall, this blog offers a comprehensive overview of the current situation surrounding the X platform in Brazil and provides valuable insights into the legal, technical, and social dynamics at play. Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.
