Some Brazilians were surprised on Wednesday, September 18, to once again have access to the mobile application of the old Twitter via cellular network and Wi-Fi, while for other users access remained impossible. A technical trick has in fact allowed the social network X to bypass the blocking imposed by the Brazilian justice system, as part of the standoff between the authorities and Elon Musk. The platform’s services assured that this was an “involuntary” maneuver.
The Brazilian Association of Internet Service Providers (Abrint), an industry group, explained how the partial recovery of X was technically possible. “The application was updated (…) overnight, which resulted in a significant change in its structure,” it said in a statement. According to Abrint, X’s use of Cloudflare, a cybersecurity company that uses constantly changing IP addresses, “makes blocking the application much more complicated.” Previously, IP addresses (which identify Internet users’ devices) were fixed and easily blocked.
“Temporary” recovery
However, “many of these IP addresses are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large platforms, making it impossible to block an IP without affecting other services,” the association explained. Citing “a delicate situation” for internet providers, it said it was waiting for “official guidance” from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).
In the evening, X assured that the restoration of its service was an “involuntary” effect of a server change and would remain “temporary”. This change “had the effect of an involuntary and temporary restoration of the service for Brazilian users”, indicated Elon Musk’s network, assuring that X would be “quickly” blocked again in this country. A Supreme Court judge, Alexandre de Moraes, had in fact ordered the suspension of X on August 30, criticizing in particular the American billionaire’s platform for having ignored a series of judicial decisions related to the fight against disinformation.
The authorities thus seem to have been caught off guard. The Supreme Court “is verifying information regarding access to X by some users. Apparently, it is only an instability in the blocking of some networks,” the high court initially reacted. Later, it said it remained “for the time being without information” on this subject. Anatel indicated that it is investigating “the reported cases” of users having access to X, stressing that there had been no “change of decision” regarding the blocking. The hashtags “He is back” and “Cloudflare” were among the most used on Wednesday in Brazil.
“Provocation” for the Brazilian press
At night, as the app was automatically updating for some Brazilians, Elon Musk wrote on his account: “Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology” – a variation of a well-known formula, seen as a “provocation” by the Brazilian press. The billionaire had castigated the suspension, calling Judge Moraes a “dictator”.
The Brazilian right led by former head of state Jair Bolsonaro followed suit. The latter, who displays his closeness to the entrepreneur, was quick to post again on X. “I congratulate all those who put pressure on to defend democracy in Brazil,” said Jair Bolsonaro, affirming that “by banning the largest social network in the country, it is not a company that has been punished, but millions of Brazilians.” The suspension had, however, been supported by the government of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the name of respect for the law. When contacted, the secretary in charge of digital affairs at the Brazilian presidency, Joao Brant, declined to comment.
“Failure”
Some users had fun, however. “Judge de Moraes: I didn’t use a VPN to get in here, I just opened the app for my daily abstinence ritual and saw that it worked,” posted one user on X. By blocking the network, Alexandre de Moraes had also planned fines of 50,000 reais (about 8,000 euros) per day for people who resorted to “technological subterfuges” to circumvent the blockage, such as the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).
The suspension of the platform in Brazil, where it had some 22 million users, has sparked a heated debate in Latin America’s largest country and beyond about the limits of freedom of expression on social media. The reinstatement of X puts the Supreme Court justices “in check,” according to Alexandre Caramelo, a telecommunications professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. “It shows that they don’t know what they’re doing” and “are unaware of what is technically possible.”