There are a lot of things happening in the world at the same time, making it difficult to focus on just one. However, there are louder events that deviate from what must be done. For example, I will analyze the ban and unban of X in Brazil and try to share my own thoughts on the matter.
It all started when Elon Musk and his team decided to go against a demand by the Supreme Court leader, Alexandre De Moraes, who ordered that some Brazilian and non-Brazilian profiles be suspended as they had allegedly acted or done something illegal, according to him. Elon immediately denied the suspension, as according to him, nothing in those accounts seemed abusive or in violation of X’s rules.
Here is where the standoff began. Alexandre and his people sent letters to X’s delegation in Brazil, threatening them with jail time if they didn't follow all the demands the government imposed. Elon, seeing this and feeling that his people were in some sort of danger, decided to shut down X’s delegation in Brazil. De Moraes didn’t take kindly to this move and warned Elon that his decision would have serious repercussions. However, Elon, with his "tons" of cash and influence, didn’t take it seriously.
The Supreme Court leader, Alexandre De Moraes, penalized X by charging them fines for not following the demands and ordered that X’s signal in the country be blocked, effectively banning the platform in the territory. Elon didn’t seem to care and promised to shed light on all the crimes De Moraes allegedly committed by demanding X suspend the profiles. For sometime, the account "Alexandrefiles" appeared on X, where documents were exposed, but it didn’t scratch the surface. Even the September 7 protest in São Paulo didn’t make De Moraes back off on his decision to ban X in Brazil.
Alexandre De Moraes also forbade any Brazilian from using VPNs to circumvent the ban, and anyone caught violating this would face more than $8,000 in daily fines. Afraid of this, Brazilians migrated to X’s similar platform, Bluesky, and within just three days, the platform almost crashed from receiving over 3 million new users.
I don't know if this started weighing on Elon Musk, but he decided to throw it all away, abandoning his "free speech" stance and complying with De Moraes' demands. First, he paid a whopping $3.3M. Then, he tested the waters by protecting X’s servers with Cloudflare, allowing any Brazilian to access the platform without using a VPN, as Cloudflare enabled IPs to keep changing, making it difficult to track. The Brazilian government and the country’s banking system also use Cloudflare to avoid cyberattacks.
When Elon began to think that Alexandre De Moraes had forgotten about the issue, De Moraes reminded the telecommunications companies in the country that X was still blocked, and they should keep that in mind. X was blacklisted again, and Elon and his team had no choice but to comply with the demands. First, they agreed to nominate a representative in Brazil. Now, the Supreme Court leader also wants a copy of the original document stating who the official "X Man in Brazil" is. He also gave instructions to the Secretary of Treasury in the country to update how much Elon Musk should pay to operate in Brazil.
In the end, Elon and his team, despite praising "free speech," are now on their knees, obeying what De Moraes wants! Who won? Of course, De Moraes. If this week all his demands are fulfilled, we will see X back in Brazil. So, Elon, what’s going on with all that "free speech" you made your followers and the world believe X stands for? Hmm, nothing to see here—Elon just sold the platform in Brazil to the government.
What do you think about this? Remember:
CONTENT IS KING!
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