The Supreme Court of Brazil has enforced an "immediate and complete suspension" of Elon Musk-owned Twitter, now known as X, for failing to appoint a legal representative in the South American country this week. The move has sparked outcry from the crypto community, which relies heavily on X for crypto market news and believes that the government’s shutdown only highlights the urgency of bitcoin and decentralized, censorship-resistant technology.
Brazil is holding municipal elections in October, and the country of more than 170 million requires tech platforms to appoint legal representatives to respond to government takedown notices. The Brazilian government claims X did not comply with this requirement amid a surge in hate speech and disinformation on the platform.
However, earlier this month, X announced that the company’s so-called legal representative in Brazil was “threatened” with arrest and faced multiple frozen bank accounts. It claimed it had voluntarily terminated operations in the country to protect staff.
On August 29, the day the Brazilian ban went into effect, Musk used his platform to assail the judge enforcing the ban. Musk pinned a tweet calling the Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes “an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge.” He also tweeted an apparent public service message exhorting users to download virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent the ban.
According to Brazilian media outlet G1 Globo , the Supreme Court pledged to levy a fine of 50,000 Brazilian real (around $9,000 at the time of writing) per day against any users defying the ban by accessing X via VPN.
This is not the first time Brazil has banned technology platforms in the country. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, was previously banned for its “total disrespect for Brazilian laws.”
The crypto community has rallied around Musk since the ban went into effect.
“I wonder if a decentralized, uncensorable, scarce, digital, global monetary asset might be useful for the world right about now,” Glassnode lead analyst James Check . “Is anyone building something like this?” https://x.com/_Checkmatey_/status/1829646630729236665
“I wonder if a decentralized, uncensorable, scarce, digital, global monetary asset might be useful for the world right about now?” Glassnode lead analyst James Check mused . “Is anyone building something like this?”
“Brazil will not follow the bull-run news,” a crypto investor on X known as MrMoontastic.eth, declared . “Very sad.”
“Brazil is absolutely nuts for banning X,” Scott Melker aka “The Wolf of All Streets” added . “But the U.S. is equally nuts for attempting to ban TikTok.”
