Users do not leave Elon Musk’s network and claim to be posting from somewhere outside Brazil; if everyone were fined, the amount would already be R$15.3 billion
Despite the suspension of X (formerly Twitter) in Brazil by order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court, thousands of Brazilians continue to use the social network.
This statement can be confirmed from a post shared by Poder360 this Sunday (1st September 2024). This digital newspaper is not disrespecting Moraes’ decision. All interactions with X are being published by the team in Lisbon (Portugal), as the rule does not apply to the use of the platform abroad.
At 9:36 am (Brasília time) this Sunday, the profile of this digital newspaper informed its followers that all posts on its X account would now be published from Portugal (see the image below). In response to the message, many said that they were also outside of Brazil – which could not be verified at first glance.
By 6:38 p.m. this Sunday, the post had already been viewed 307,000 times. It is not possible to say exactly who used a VPN – a type of software that allows private browsing and thus access to the social network as if the user were in another country, not in Brazil.
In addition to ordering the suspension of X in Brazil, Moraes also determined that a daily fine of R$ 50,000 to any natural or legal person who made use of “technological subterfuge”how to access via VPN, to view X.
If each of the 307,000 views was a unique visitor using a VPN, the value of all the fines would add up to R$ 15.3 billion only this sunday.
To reach a conviction in a case like this, however, it would be necessary to issue an individual order to each person notifying them of the fine applied. However, in this case it would also be essential to count on the collaboration of X to identify all the IPs – an acronym for “internet protocol”, the origin record of each access, which, at this point, sounds very unlikely.
The OAB-DF has already asked the Supreme Court to review the fine for those who use a VPN to access X during the blockade. It called this part of Moraes’ decision “measure unreasonable and disproportionate”. Read the full of the order (PDF – 1 MB).
In his original ruling, Moraes had gone further. He had ordered Apple and Google to remove all VPN apps from their stores. He later backtracked.
Moraes’ decision to prohibit access to X even via VPN is impractical from a technical and legal point of view. The Judiciary believes that the Brazilian justice system could be discredited by this episode, as there is no way to monitor and punish thousands of Brazilians at the same time.
This Sunday (September 1st), Moraes sent his decision regarding the suspension of X to the 1st Chamber of the STF – which he presides over. The ministers will analyze the issue on Monday (September 2nd), in the virtual plenary – in which there is no debate.
In addition to Moraes, the 1st Chamber of the STF is made up of: Cármen Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino and Luiz Fux.
SEARCH FOR VPN
Since Moraes’ decision, searches for VPNs on Google have multiplied by 10, as shown in this report from Poder360.
Below is the level of interest in the term “VPN” since Wednesday (28th August):
- 28.Aug – 10 points;
- 29.Aug – 12 points;
- 30.Aug – 100 points (peak of interest);
- 31.Aug – 94 points.
Read more about Moraes X Musk:
#Thousands #Brazilians #continue
