On Wednesday (09/18), Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes ordered the social network X to immediately suspend new access through CDN, Cloudflare, Fastly, Edgeuno, and other similar servers allegedly created to circumvent the court decision blocking the platform in Brazil, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 5 million.
The Anatel notified the Court on Wednesday about the maneuver that updated the X application, which occurred in the last 24 hours, allowing users to access the platform’s services in the country, circumventing the block.
“There is no doubt, therefore, that the X platform — under the direct command of Elon Musk — intends, once again, to disrespect the Brazilian Judiciary, as Anatel uncovered the strategy used to disobey the court order issued in the case, including the suggestion of measures to be taken to maintain the suspension,” wrote Minister Alexandre de Moraes in the decision.
In addition, he ordered Anatel to immediately adopt all necessary measures to maintain the suspension of X’s operation in national territory.
In his decision, Minister Alexandre de Moraes set a deadline of 24 hours for Anatel to inform the STF what measures were adopted and what measures were implemented to comply with the decision to block X in the country.
In a statement to the press, Anatel says that user accessibility to the X network violates the court decision and clarifies that it had the active support of telecommunications operators and the company Cloudfare in identifying the mechanism that allowed the platform to be unblocked. The regulatory agency also reported possible measures that could be adopted to correct the problem.
“The conduct of the X network demonstrates a deliberate intention to disobey the STF’s order. Any new attempts to circumvent the block will deserve the appropriate measures from the Agency,” says Anatel’s statement.
X stated that it did not intend to restore access for Brazilian users.
“When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service for Latin America was no longer accessible to our team,” a company spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday. “To continue providing an optimal service for our users, we switched operators. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary restoration of service for Brazilian users. While we expect the platform to become inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon to the people of Brazil.”
X has been blocked in Brazil since late August, following a decision by Minister Alexandre de Moraes. The suspension is valid until the network pays the fines and appoints a legal representative in the country.
Before the suspension, X had about 22 million users in Brazil.
Source: Agência Brasil and CNBC