São Paulo, Brazil – Following a very public row between Brazil’s Supreme Court and X owner Elon Musk, which led to the court banning the social media company in the country on August 30, many Brazilians have been seeking out other social platforms like Bluesky and Threads.
Still others remain active on X, accessing the site via virtual private networks (VPNs), despite a potential fine of R$50,000 (USD $8,900).
Last month, tensions over accusations from Brazil’s highest court that X refused to comply with multiple orders to suspend posts and profiles sharing fake news and hate speech, boiled over when Musk refused to comply with a court order to appoint a new legal representative for X in Brazil.
Both Musk and Justice Alexandre de Moraes took to X during the feud to voice their opinions, with Musk going as far as saying, “De Moraes deserves prison for his crimes.”
As the timeline for appointing a new legal representative came to a close last Thursday, Moraes ordered the platform banned in the country. On Monday, a Supreme Court panel unanimously upheld the order.
Read more: X is blocked in Brazil after Musk fails to appoint new legal representative
Since then, many of Brazil’s 40 million X users have been searching for other alternatives.
Bluesky, a spin-off of X (formerly Twitter), has so far been the platform of choice for Brazilians banned from X. The company has gained over 2 million users in Brazil since the blockage, and it became the most downloaded app in the country over the weekend.
On September 4, the company, which counts just over 8 million total users, announced that of the 2.6 million users it gained in the last few days, 85% are Brazilian. There are currently 4 million total Bluesky users in Brazil.
Additionally, a survey by digital consulting firm Bites showed that Google searches for Bluesky have surpassed searches for the term “VPN,” potentially indicating that most Brazilians are preferring to migrate to other platforms rather than risk using a VPN to access X.
Another X competitor, Threads, which is owned by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, could have also seen a bump in users, but has yet to release new figures since X’s ban. The company currently counts around 3.3 million users on its platform.
While all this is happening, billionaire Musk continues to attack Supreme Court Justice Moraes, calling him an “evil dictator.” Musk created a profile on X called “Alexandre files” to publish all the judge’s decisions involving the blocking of posts and profiles that shared fake news and hate speech.
Musk argued that he refused to comply with the judge’s orders because they are censorship and an attack on free speech. By not complying with the orders to suspend accounts, Musk has accumulated fines exceeding R$18 million (USD $3.2 million).
On Monday, Moraes’ decision was reviewed by a panel of four other Supreme Court justices. All agreed to uphold Moraes’s decision to block X.
Justice Flávio Dino said that “economic power and the size of the bank account do not create an absurd immunity from jurisdiction.” Justice Cármen Lúcia said that the “repeated and unfounded disregard for Brazilian law and national legislation must receive a consistent judicial response.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized Musk in a statement, saying, “The Brazilian Judiciary may have sent an important message that the world is not obliged to endure Musk’s far-right free-for-all just because he is rich.”
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