Musk encourages Brazilians to use VPN to circumvent ban on X

The CEO of The businessman has suggested that his social network may go offline in Brazil and endorsed a recommendation for users to use a resource known as VPN (virtual private network, in Portuguese), which allows browsing in a hidden manner and circumventing any judicial prohibition.

VPN (there are several companies that offer the service, free or paid) allows a person to access websites on the internet without their access provider knowing which country the connection is coming from. In other words, if the court prohibits the use of Twitter in Brazil, Brazilian operators will block access, but anyone who has a VPN will be able to continue using it normally.

On his X profile, Musk posted a tweet recommending that Brazilians use a VPN: “To ensure you can still access Platform X, download a virtual private network (VPN) app”.

In another post, the owner of X responded to a tutorial that teaches users how to download a VPN application and said that “using a VPN is very easy”.

This attitude by Musk can be interpreted by Minister Alexandre de Moraes as an affront to Justice and encouragement of criminal attitudes. The magistrate has already ordered the businessman to be included in the digital militia investigation.

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TWITTER FILES BRAZIL

On Wednesday (April 3), American journalist Michael Shellenberger published an alleged exchange of emails between employees of the legal sector of X in Brazil between 2020 and 2022 talking about requests and court orders received regarding content of their users.

The messages would show requests from various instances of the Brazilian Judiciary requesting personal data from users who used hashtags about the electoral process and content moderation.

Shellenberger specifically criticized STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Alexandre de Moraes, criticizing him for “leading a case of widespread repression of freedom of expression in Brazil”. According to him, Moraes issued decisions by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that “threaten democracy in Brazil” when asking for interventions in publications by members of the National Congress and personal account data – which would violate the platform’s guidelines. The records of the processes mentioned in the case are confidential.

The case was named “Twitter files Brazil” in reference to the “Twitter files” originally published in 2022, after Musk bought X, in October of that year.

At the time, Musk delivered material to journalists that indicated how the social network, in the 2020 North American elections, collaborated with United States authorities to block users and suppress stories involving the son of the country’s presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The files published by journalists include email exchanges that reveal, to some extent, how Twitter reacted to requests from governments to intervene in the policy of publishing and removing content. In some cases, the social network ended up giving in.

In the Brazilian case, Musk was not indicated as the source who provided the material, however, the businessman criticized Moraes for a few days. Read the top comments: