this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2024
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Late on Friday afternoon, Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has been engaged in a dispute with X’s owner, Elon Musk, since April – ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in the country, “until all court orders … are complied with, fines are duly paid, and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country”.

He gave Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency 24 hours to enforce the decision. Once notified, the agency must pass the order on to the more than 20,000 broadband internet providers in the country, each of which must block X.

In an interview with the TV channel Globonews, the agency’s president, Carlos Manuel Baigorri, said the order had already been passed on to internet providers.

“Since we’re talking about more than 20,000 companies, each will have its own implementation time, but … we expect that probably over the weekend all companies will be able to implement the block,” he said.

Justice Moraes also summoned Apple and Google to “implement technological barriers to prevent the use of the X app by users of the iOS and Android systems” and to block the use of virtual private network (VPN) applications.

The decision imposes a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,800) on individuals and companies that attempt to continue using X via VPN.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 months ago (13 children)

sounds feasible except the "blocking the use of vpn apps" part?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that line was particularly concerning. I'm all for watching Elon get a Brazilian beatdown, but that feels like a pretty large overstep.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Justice Moraes had also said that any person in Brazil who tried to still use X via common privacy software called a virtual private network, or VPN, could be fined nearly $9,000 a day. But after swift backlash across Brazil, including from academics who have supported him, he reversed that move in an amended order late Friday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-x-blocked.html

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago

Good to see someone listening to people more knowledgeable than them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

At best that’s just unclear. Blocking VPNs isn’t impossible, just impractical. And it’s not like Brazil just became China. At worst, the just made accessing X impracticality expensive for its users— which, in Brazil, is a lot of people. In typical Brazilian fashion, they’re hitting Elon in the wallet.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Yeah, this left a bad taste.

At least he revoked this section of the decision a couple hours later.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 months ago (2 children)

When you’re too corrupt, even for Brazil, that really does say something.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They're more WhatsApp people than Twitter people anyway.

But this is pretty standard legal stuff. Musk just doesn't think he has to send a lawyer down to argue his case. He can blow it off, thinking that he's simply above the law.

It isn't even corruption, per say. It's just entitlement slamming into another state's basic sovereignty.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Well, maybe I’m just too GenX, but, to me, that’s a distinction without a difference. WhatsApp is texting with extra steps, and Twitter is for Nazis. I’ve never used the former and gave up the latter along with FB and insta early on during covid. Reddit was my last social whatever, and I jumped that ship last June for this last shout.

I’ve never had tiktaky or snapsnore. Most of my time on my phone is spent either here or listening to news podcasts— which is pretty much what I did as a teenager: listening to NPR as my morning routine then a news/music mix throughout the day.

Hmmm…. How unusual and a little confusing to be both impressed and disappointed in oneself… well that’s why some of our best paid scientists are furiously genetically engineering new strains of cannabis! So I don’t have to deal with this shit!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

WhatsApp is texting with extra steps, and Twitter is for Nazis.

No shortage of Nazis on Whatsapp. And not the Discount Donny Groypers, either. Real Boys From Brazil. People with an actual Nazi pedigree.

How unusual and a little confusing to be both impressed and disappointed in oneself

Eh. We all eat from the trough of ideology.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

You know how Americans have ZERO base to stand on talking about other countries anymore? Didn’t get the memo? You guys are the bottom of the barrel now in every aspect. Sheesh.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Spread it to Everybody from Brazil: Leave Xitter, JOIN MASTODON!

How to join Mastodon:

https://www.followchain.org/join-mastodon/

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago

There is some misleading information in there. Probably better to just get straight to the point with the 'standard' https://joinmastodon.org/ link.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I think that site has incorrect information. They wrote "you need to sign up separately on every server on Mastodon to see their community posts" but surely that's the opposite of what the fediverse is about? Mastodon's server page even says that with a single account you can see everything.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

People seem to be going to bluesky, even the president is there

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is Xitter pronounced Shitter? Makes South Park prophetic again.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Tchau, Elon

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Lets hope the EU will follow soon. Brazil leads the way!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

To be fair, X didn't "miss the deadline".

They never gave a shit in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wait, there are 20,000 ISPs!?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

idk where that number came from, but there's a survey from 2022 listing 11,630 providers. That would average 2.08 per municipality and makes sense imo. The larger-scale telecom infrastructure is still an oligopoly though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I'm guessing they mean regional subsidiaries, Brazil is big, but not that big.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Brazil has a lot of small, very small, ISPs. There was a law some time back that boosted the market for smaller ISPs. On my street I have a small ISP that only runs cables and internet to a portion of my neighborhood. However, those smaller ISPs are usually buying their connection from the few giant companies in the business and redistributing it through their own means. Crazy part though: often they have better prices and support when compared to the giant ISPs they're buying their internet access from.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Brazilian sounds like a lot.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's 7 times less than German

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

So if you’re are Brazilian nazi, go get a Windows phone

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Late on Friday afternoon, Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has been engaged in a dispute with X’s owner, Elon Musk, since April

A Justice isn’t in a dispute with anyone, Guardian. A Justice rules based on law. In the case of Brazil, the Justice system is based on Roman law, as opposed to Common law that is in effect in UK and USA. That means a judge has even less power, as they are tied to existing legislation and can’t rule unless there’s a specific codified law that allows them to rule in that way for that crime or misdemeanor.

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