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Elon Musk’s social media platform X was briefly accessible in Brazil on Wednesday, despite a ban imposed by the country’s supreme court.
This occurred after the company updated its server infrastructure, switching to Cloudflare as its cloud provider, the Financial Times reports. X’s update resulted in unintended access for some Brazilian users without the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which had previously been restricted by the court.
The social media platform had been banned in Brazil since August 31 after X failed to appoint a legal representative in compliance with local laws.
The ban followed growing tensions between Musk and Brazil’s judiciary, particularly Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has led a crackdown on digital misinformation in the South American nation. Musk’s refusal to comply with certain judicial orders and the subsequent closure of X’s office in Brazil escalated the dispute.
X Blames Access on Technical Update
While the platform’s brief return has raised questions about the company’s intentions, X’s Global Government Affairs team maintains that the restoration was accidental.
In a statement explaining the temporary access, X explained that the change in network providers led to temporary service access, though it expects the ban to be reimposed soon and will continue working with the Brazilian authorities to bring back its services to the country.
Meanwhile, it appears the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers (ABRINT) did not buy the explanation.
In a statement reported by the BBC, ABRINT advisor Basílio Rodriguez Pérez said: “Everything that happened during the day led us to believe that it was on purpose.”
The body also expressed concern over X’s switch to Cloudflare. It believes that because Cloudflare uses dynamic IP addresses, it makes it more complex to block the platform. ABRINT noted that these dynamic IPs are shared with other services, including banking systems, making a complete block challenging without impacting other critical services.
