- E. Musk and Brazilian referee fight still no winners
- Why was X (formerly Twitter) blocked in Brazil?
- E. Musk's takeover of Platform X has become a headache for Brazil, which has tried to silence the opposition
E. Musk and Brazilian referee fight still no winners
Elon Musk has accused the Brazilian government of stifling freedom of speech. This is his reaction to the blocking of his social network X. Earlier, the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the immediate suspension of X because Musk refused to appoint an official representative of the platform in the country. Brazilians face a fine of 50,000 reais (almost USD 9,000) for using the "X" platform via VPN.
A virtual private network (VPN) connects separate computer networks that are far from each other into a single network over the Internet. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel, protecting identities and hiding the IP address. Virtualization is the result of the network being organized over the Internet rather than directly.
According to the entrepreneur, this directly attacks freedom of expression. The post in question was published on Musk's account on the X platform[1].
"X is the most popular news source in Brazil. This is what the people want. Now the tyrant Voldemort is suppressing the people's right to freedom of expression," the billionaire wrote.
Earlier, he posted a photo of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and a still from the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with Voldemort, played by actor Ralph Fiennes, pointing out their resemblance. "A striking similarity. Alexander and Voldemort," Musk emphasized.
Why was X (formerly Twitter) blocked in Brazil?
On Friday, 30 August, A. de Moraes ordered the immediate suspension of X in Brazil. On Saturday, Brazilian internet providers began restricting users' access to the social network at the request of telecoms regulator Anatel, reports the Associated Press[2].
The reason for the block was Musk's refusal to appoint a new official X representative in the country. On Wednesday 28 August, Mr de Moraes warned the billionaire that X could be blocked if he did not comply with his order within 24 hours. In a ruling issued on Friday, the judge stressed that Musk had shown total disrespect for Brazil's sovereignty and, in particular, its judicial system.
A. de Moraes said that the platform's activities would be restricted until it complies with the requirements set out, and also imposed a daily fine of 50,000 reais (USD 8,900) on Brazilian residents and local businesses for using "X" via VPN.
In addition, the Brazilian Supreme Court froze the bank accounts of Musk's satellite internet provider, Starlink. The company said that this decision was taken secretly and without due process of law guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution and promised to appeal.
According to the AP, Brazil is one of X's biggest markets. "According to Emarketer, around 40 million Brazilians use the social network each month, which is about a fifth of the country's population. Before Friday's Supreme Court ruling, there was a month-long dispute over X's refusal to block accounts that the court said contained extremist and anti-democratic language.
E. Musk's takeover of Platform X has become a headache for Brazil, which has tried to silence the opposition
"Twitter (from July 2023, "X") is a free microblogging and social networking service that allows its users to send and read short messages (tweets). The social network was created in 2006, conceived by Jack Dorsey, and initially largely funded by Evan Williams.
In 2023, Twitter had more than 666 million active users worldwide[3].
"Twitter is one of the 10 most visited websites in the world. The rapid growth in Twitter messages has contributed significantly to this. For example, only 50 million Twitter messages were sent every day in 2010, rising to 500 million in 2013.
On 25 April 2022, the company's board of directors agreed to sell Twitter to Elon Musk for USD 44 billion, a sale that was approved on 27 October 2022.
Linda Yaccarino was appointed CEO on 5 June 2023.
On 23 July 2023, Musk announced that Twitter was changing its logo to the "X" mark.
"A 'tweet' is a text message of up to 280 characters (140 until 2017) that appears on the author's page and is sent to the author's subscribers, also known as 'followers'. Authors can limit the visibility of their messages to their circle of friends or make them visible to everyone. Users can send and receive messages via the Twitter website, SMS or external applications. Although the service itself is free, receiving messages via SMS is chargeable - the service providers set prices.
The 140-character limit has been set for compatibility with SMS. This limitation brought abbreviations to the Twitter website that were previously typically used only in SMS messages. The limit has also encouraged the use of link-shortening sites (e.g., tinyurl.com, bit.ly). Twitter now automatically shortens all links with its link shortening service t.co.
Twitter's main distinguishing features, although they come from the culture of Internet chatter - the @ and # signs - were introduced by users and only later became an official part of Twitter's services. The @ sign for replying to or mentioning another Twitter user was officially introduced in May 2007, while the # sign - hashtag for marking keywords and topics - combinations of words that are not spelled out - was introduced in July 2009. The retweet (RT) option was also introduced only later, in November 2009.
