Elon Musk's X evades Brazil ban with a software update

An association of Brazilian Internet providers said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's X dodged a ban on the social media network in Brazil through an automatic update of its software, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Access to the platform suddenly reopened overnight for many in Latin America's most populous nation after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered it blocked last month in a spat with Musk. Waking up to find X suddenly working again on their phones, Brazilian users chattered away Wednesday in speculation over whether or not the ruling had been overturned.

The Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers, or ABRINT, explained that in its update, X had changed its structure to make use of IP addresses associated with Cloudflare, a cyber security company in San Francisco. This internet-infrastructure provider works with millions of websites, helping many route their traffic.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Structural changes in X "make blocking the app much more complicated," the ABRINT group said in a statement. The organisation said that under the old system of X, there were specific IP addresses on the platform, which internet companies could use to identify where data is coming from.

Many of the IP addresses currently being used by X “are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP without affecting other services,” ABRINT added.

X, formerly known as Twitter until Musk's 2022 acquisition, said the access restored for Brazilians was "inadvertent and temporary," resulting after the company changed network providers after its ban in the country.

“While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil,” an X spokesperson said in a statement.

Cloudflare declined to comment. The Supreme Court didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but local media said it asked Brazil's telecoms regulator, Anatel, to explain the unauthorised return of X.

Anatel said in a statement that it “continues to monitor the blocking order. The surveillance results are reported directly to the Supreme Court.”

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a crusader against fake news and hate speech, banned X in August after Musk refused to appoint a legal representative in Brazil and restrict certain accounts.

The world's richest man has tried to brand the work of the judge as a hazardous example of state overreach and an attack on free speech, while Moraes's defenders argue that the campaign is needed to scrub the Internet clean.

Earlier Wednesday, Brazil's telecoms regulator, Anatel, said there was no change in the Supreme Court decision to ban X, formally known as Twitter.