Hello I'am from Brazil and my country recently blocked access to X (Twitter). Lets talk about it

On January 8, 2023, a crowd of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the Brazilian National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court, vandalized symbols of the Republic, attacked officers and - believe it or not - defecated in the area and a little bit more... an event similar to the attacks on the USA Capitol.

At the time, the new Brazilian Supreme Court Minister demanded the blocking and handover of data from thousands of accounts involved in the attack. This demand generated a political reaction from different bases, including that of Elon Musk that reacted using the X to accuse the Brazilian minister of being a dictator and point out the request for access to data and blocking of accounts involved in the anti-democratic attack as being a type of censorship agains X.

From then on we have a series of attacks by Musk against Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who responds with harsh fines, penalties and more legal demands (sometimes attacking back). Moraes has since seemed determined to apply serious sanctions to everything he called "anti-democratic acts" related to both the country's recent past and present. Many of these harsh sanctions, such as 12 years in prison for the woman who defecated on the supreme court table on the day of the protests. Little or no dialogue was opened regarding Moraes' decisions, and that is why he also began to receive the title of "dictator".

From that point on, Musk wore the shirt of a figure who, according to himself, was only fighting for free speech while failing to comply, ignoring and attacking all the demands of the Brazilian supreme court and the laws imposed on him. The population here was divided between those who supported Musk and argued that X should not be forced to hand over any data to the Brazilian government and Those who supported Alexandre saying that our laws are sovereign and Musk should not argue about how they are made or refuse to hand over data.

Well, many conflicts ahead, Musk accusing Alexandre of being a dictator in his demands, Alexandre accusing Musk of being a criminal in his attacks. Until Alexandre increased the daily fines imposed on X from 50 thousand to 200 thousand USD, and also asked for the account of a politician and ideological agitator of the extreme right, Arthur do Val, to be blocked (This politician is under investigation for having links to criminal attacks on the Supreme Court and National Congress and according to the Brazilian supreme court, he could not have free access to the dissemination of information - Musk disagrees).

Days later, X made a post on its official profile on the platform itself exposing Alexandre de Moraes and the Brazilian court acts as "censorship" and claiming that its office in Brazil was being targeted by a free speech crackdown, that it was being censored and that they would attack back. And they revived it. Musk ordered the closure and removal of X's office in Brazil ASAP.

Here things get complicated even more because by doing this Musk directly violated Brazilian federal law: almost entire session II, especially paragraph 11, the subsection II and III of the "Civil Rights Law for the Internet"(https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011-2014/2014/lei/l12965.htm).

Moraes acted immediately demanding that Musk reopen the office in Brazilian territory. Some see the speed with which Moraes acted as a way of circumventing justice since the minister appears not to have followed the rites and time required for some demands and sanctions.

Musk reacted by saying he would not reopen the office here until the sanctions and demands on X were removed. In response, Moraes determined on August 28 that X appoint a new legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours, as required by local legislation. If the company did not do so, X would be blocked in Brazil. Musk ignored.

So X (Twitter) was blocked. Well... first day was chaos for X (Twitter) users. Opinions were divided again: some pointed out that the decision was correct as Elon should not be above a country's laws. Others pointed out that Moraes' action was disproportionate and premature, driven by personal reasons, as for example the initial fine imposed by Moraes of 50 thousand reais per day for those who use VPN to access Twitter, this sanction was removed after clarification to the minister of the impossibility of doing so due to VARIOUS reasons.

Most Brazilian users migrate to Blue Sky. We have no perspective on how this conflict will end (or if it will happen so soon). It is also not clear to any of us whether there are any official negotiations taking place between musk and the country at this time. New elections should take place in both Brazil and the USA soon and this should also completely change the perspective of this conflict.

Finally, a point that we cannot go without noticing: Brazilians are loving being on Blue Sky, the consensus is general since the algorithm seems simpler, there are not many advertisements, there are almost no betting bots, politicians or 18+ content and the relationships seem to have become more human again. In any case, we miss the international community. A hug from Brazil, friends!