Refusal to comply with local laws suggests social media company ‘considered itself above the rule of law’, says judge

Members of Brazil’s supreme court have unanimously voted to uphold the ban on X, after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws led to the social network being blocked in one of its biggest markets.

On Monday, five of the court’s justices were asked to consider Friday’s decision to temporarily banish X from Brazil, where the platform has more than 21 million users. By lunchtime all five had voted in favour of the ban.

Casting his vote in favour of X’s continued suspension, Flávio Dino said the company’s decision to “deliberately” ignore a court order to name a legal representative in Brazil suggested it “considered itself above the rule of law”.

  • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    3 months ago

    I guess all this block did was teach the Brazilian population how to use VPNs.

    ISPs have a period to comply with the order. Mine still hasn’t blocked the shitshow.

        • Monomate@lemm.eeEnglish
          313·
          3 months ago

          When a X user finds himself unable to load X’s main page or the app, he will be motivated to investagate why, and finally he’ll find out VPNs are the solution. X’s brazilian users were already discussing and suggesting VPNs to each other on the days leading up to the block. And the block is not 100% yet: smaller ISPs are taking longer to set up the block.

          • deus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            14·
            3 months ago

            Yeah, I doubt most people will go this route. VPNs cost money, Twitter alternatives are free.

            • Monomate@lemm.eeEnglish
              310·
              3 months ago

              Free VPNs don’t cost money. And times have changed: there are some reputable free VPNs, like ProtonVPN and Cloudflare’s WARP.

          • Zron@lemmy.worldEnglish
            12·
            3 months ago

            You mean: when an X user finds themselves unable to load the main page, they’ll get frustrated, uninstall the app and leave a review about how it’s broken.

            You grossly overestimate the tech savvyness of your average internet user, and their willingness to spend any amount of time or money to fix a minor inconvenience.

            • Monomate@lemm.eeEnglish
              214·
              3 months ago

              If the solution is as simple as downloading a VPN app from the smartphone app store and clicking “activate VPN,” I wouldn’t consider it tech-savvy territory. In the past, VPNs were indeed esoteric tech for nerds, but nowadays they’re commoditized stuff. And if Brazil’s regime keeps getting more repressive under the dictator, with the blocking of more social media sites, more people will have the opportunity/necessity to learn about VPNs.