Brazil’s Supreme Court recently ordered the suspension of X, after a months-long legal battle between the owner Elon Musk and the Brazilian authorities. The row began in April, with a judge ordering the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading misinformation, which X did not comply with.
China banned X in 2009, along with Facebook, Flickr and Hotmail. The step was taken after Uyghur protests grew in the northwest city of Urumqi. The Chinese government suspected X was being used to organise the unrest and spread misinformation.
In 2009, Iran banned X following protests against the disputed presidential election results that declared hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. Tech-savvy Iranians used X to organise protests and share vivid accounts of events, earning the term “Twitter Revolution” from many journalists.
After a military coup took power in Myanmar in 2021, the rulers ordered mobile networks and internet service providers to block X and Instagram. Social media users had been using these platforms to protest the coup, sharing photos of giving the three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance in the region.
In 2016, North Korea officially announced it was blocking X, along with Facebook, YouTube, and several South Korean websites, to tighten control over outside information. The announcement added that anyone who tries to access them in an “improper” way will be subject to punishment.
X has been facing troubles since 2022, when Russian authorities intensified their crackdown on dissent and free media following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. The Russian government restricted access to X, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
In 2018, Turkmenistan blocked social media apps like X, WhatsApp and Facebook, as well as foreign news and opposition websites. Instead, the country introduced its first privately developed messaging app, BizBarde that "allows the exchange of messengers, files, photos, and videos."