The News
Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered a ban on Elon Musk’s X to be lifted Tuesday following the apparent resolution of a lengthy legal fight over X’s noncompliance with the country’s disinformation rules.
The ban, instated in August, had blocked X from one of its largest markets — according to the company, X had more than 21 million active users in Brazil. Musk initially criticized the decision as censorship, however since then, X has paid multimillion-dollar fines, removed flagged accounts and content, and appointed a local legal representative.
In the wake of the ban, some X users left the platform for others, including Bluesky, which said it gained 2.6 million users within a week of X being blocked, with almost all appearing to come from Brazil, The Associated Press reported.
Musk’s U-turn is “pragmatic,” an analyst at Emarketer told the outlet, likely spurred by the possibility of “losing access to millions of users in its third-largest market worldwide, along with the millions of dollars in associated advertising revenue.” “Although X may not be a top priority for most advertisers in Brazil, the platform needs them more than they need it,” he added.
Advertising makes up the bulk of X’s income, and ad revenue plummeted in the first six months of this year, ad-tracking company MediaRadar found, having already dipped significantly in 2023 following Musk’s takeover in late 2022.