X users rejoice, the platform is now active in Brazil once again.
Well, unless you were among those who strongly believed that Brazil was wrong to ban X in the first place, and that Elon and Co. were right to take a stand for “free speech”. In which case this is a blow to your principles, and to Elon himself, who made a big show about opposing the “corrupt” Brazilian authorities.
But for everyone else, this is a good day, with around 20 million X users now able to come back to the app, and abandon Threads and Bluesky, which had both surged in usage in the nation over the past few weeks.
According to Bloomberg, Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has officially confirmed an end to X’s suspension in the nation, after X agreed to remove selected user accounts, as per Brazilian Government orders. X has also appointed a new legal representative in the country.
X had initially refused to action the Brazilian Government’s requests, saying that they went beyond the scope of the law, are were not in line with the platform’s freedom of speech principles.
But now, after a month of being unavailable in the nation, X has complied with all elements, and will adhere to the ruling of Brazilian officials.
So is that a good outcome?
Well, it depends on your view of the initial requests, and what that may or may not mean for government influence over social apps.
The removal requests submitted by Brazilian authorities relate to accounts that have continued to claim that the 2020 Brazilian election was “stolen”, which resulted, they claim, in the unjust ousting of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Various investigations have failed to prove this theory, so rather than allowing these profiles to continue feeding into conspiracies that could undermine government authority, Brazilian officials ruled that X must remove them from the app.
But X owner Elon Musk, who was an ally of Bolsonaro, and had organized various deals for his companies in Brazil during Bolsonaro’s presidency, didn’t believe that these profiles should be removed. Under Elon’s freedom of speech ethos, his view is that these users should be able to say what they want, so he refused, initially, to adhere to the government’s requests.
Musk then went on various tirades about how corrupt Brazilian officials are, and how they control the government. The essence of Musk’s broader opposition in this sense is that governments should not be able to mandate the removal of speech that they don’t like, unless there’s a clear legal basis for such.
Musk didn’t believe that there was in this case, so he opposed it. Which was a costly decision, leading to lost revenue over the past 30 or so days.
Which is why X is now aligning with the Brazilian government requests.
So maybe the Brazilian ruling was right, in that misinformation that can undermine the government should not be allowed to proliferate online, or maybe Elon was right, in taking a stand against government censorship.
I’m not sure that there’s a definitive answer, while the added complications of Musk’s personal biases in this case also make it difficult to determine just cause.
But regardless, X is now set to play ball, in order to get back online for Brazilian users.
Although it did also have one final hiccup, in paying $5 million in fines related to its stance into the wrong Brazilian bank.
I mean, not overly surprising for X, considering the flimsy way the whole operations is seemingly being held together. But another note in the broader saga.
