Brazil Joins Over 30 Nations That Have Blocked Musk’s X: Why Is The Platform Under Scrutiny? | #CV

Introduction I think just generally that the the I'm looking for something that's like like I said broadly as broadly inclusive as possible uh that's as trusted as possible as a system this is how American businessman Brazil blocks access to X Elon Musk envisioned X formerly known as Twitter when he bought the social media platform primarily used for political commentary in March 2023 more than a year later governments in several countries tend to disagree with musk with many resorting to blocking X in their Nations accusing the platform of entertaining and spreading misinformation among other charges the latest country to join the bandwagon is Brazil on August 31st x one of the world's most popular social networks went offline in Brazil millions of Brazilian X users found themselves unable to access the network as Internet providers and mobile phone companies began to enforce the ban What’s behind Brazil’s decision to ban X? [Music] the Banning of X which has more than 22 million users in Brazil is the climax of a politically charged months long arm wrestle between the country's top court and the tech billionaire who has aligned himself with the right wing Alexandre de morz the influential Supreme Court Judge responsible for the ban had been spearheading an attempt to force force x to purge anti-democratic far-right voices in the wake of the January 2023 Uprising in the capital Brazilia carried out by supporters of the former far-right president ja bolsonaro the ra began in April with the judge ordering the suspension of dozens of EX accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation musk who has aligned himself with right-wing figures including bolsonaro and his us Ally Donald Trump pushed back accusing Moray of squelching free speech and trying to censor conservative views the final straw before X's blocking in Brazil came on August 29th when musk ignored a 24-hour deadline to name a new legal representative after the social media platform closed its local office in mid August in the August 30th ruling ordering the ban Moray accused X of treating The Social Network like a No Man's Land a veritable land without law by allowing the massive propagation of misinformation hate speech and anti-democratic attacks Alexandre de Moray ordered the immediate and complete suspension of the social media platform until it complies with all court orders and pays existing fines for [Music] hours later shortly after midnight local time Brazilian users began noticing that X had expired musk ramped up his attacks on Moray calling the judge Voldemort and tweeting a meme of a dog dangling its scrotum in the face of another animal he is the dictator of Brazil not a judge he just wears that as a costume musk wrote on X he also accused the judge of engaging in serious repeated and deliberate election interference in Brazil's last presidential election prominent right-wing voices rallied to musk's side underlining the growing Affinity between the Brazilian far right and the world's richest person I'm going to radicalize even if I do it on my own vowed Nicholas Ferrera a prominent right-wing Congressman in the hours before X was blocked responding to another similar tweet by Ferrera calling on Brazilians to fight against the ban musk wrote you are a freedom fighter Progressive Brazilians scoffed at musk's claim to be defending free speech with many celebrating the Supreme Court's decision to show XIs owner that he was not above the law if billionaires want to have companies that make billions in these parts they need to learn to respect the laws here long live the Democratic rule of law and national sovereignty the left-wing congresswoman Eric Elton wrote on X on August 31st it is the latest in a series of rouss involving the tech billionaire who has clashed with the EU over the regulation of X his public attacks on Moray were reminiscent of his repeated online Digs at the British prime minister K starma during the recent farri UK riots which X's owner was accused of inflaming Other countries to restrict X? [Music] Brazil joins a small Club of countries mostly consisting of Nations not a part of the western block to have taken similar measures Against The Social Network Beyond permanent bans some Nations have temporarily restricted access to [Music] X in Venezuela Nicholas Maduro who was declared winner of July's presidential election despite grave suspicions of fraud from the opposition suspended access to X for 10 days on August 9th 2024 as security forces were quelling Nationwide demonstrations the block has remained in place beyond the expiry of the 10-day period Egypt in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings blocked then Twitter now X when thousands of people took to the streets to protest then president hosney mubarak's 30-year rule the ban was put in place to prevent social media from being used to F unrest turkey decided to temporarily block access to X twice to fight what it called disinformation in 2014 Turkish president Reep tayip erdogan vowed to wipe out the social network after corruption allegations about his administration were shared on the platform in 2023 Ankara blocked the microblogging site for a brief period to stop the dissemination of misinformation about the devastating earthquake that hit the country in February of that year later that year X's decision to block certain content in Turkey the day before its presidential election prompted speculation that the site might again face a ban in anara but that didn't happen usbekistan in 2021 blocked the platform ahead of presidential elections in the country a year later its services were restored the blocking and unblocking of the platform stemmed from a data localization law signed in January 2021 which went into effect in April of that year the law mandates that the personal data of usbekistan citizens be processed and stored on technical means physically located on the territory of usbekistan X was accused of not complying with the law China banned X in June 2009 before it secured The prominent place it enjoyed in Western media and politics for much of the 2010s the block came 2 days before the 20th anniversary of the government's quashing of what protesters called pro-democracy demonstrations in the capitals tianan Square since then many Chinese people have turned to Homegrown Alternatives such as waybo and WeChat Iran also blocked X in 2009 as a wave of demonstrations broke out following a contested June presidential election the network has nevertheless been used since then to pass information to the outside world about dissident movements including the demonstrations against Iran's repression of women's rights since late 2022 Russia throttled access to X in 2021 complaining the site was allowing users to spread illegal content in February 2022 it completely blocked access to X for placing restrictions on state-owned media the move was seen by the Kremlin as a bid by the us-based platform to suppress information that didn't suit The Narrative of the West which has been backing Ukraine in the war however the West saw it as part of a broader effort of the Russian Administration to control the spread of information following its invasion of Ukraine access to the service was restricted just days after Russia began its Invasion turkistan blocked X in the early 2010s alongside many other foreign online services and websites authorities in ashgabat closely surveil citizens usage of the internet provided through state run Monopoly operator Turk Telecom North Korea opened its own X account in 2010 in a bid to woo foreigners interested in the country however the application has been blocked along with Facebook YouTube and gambling and pornography websit since April 2016 internet access Beyond a few government websites is under tight government watch in pongyang with access restricted to a few high ranking officials in in Myanmar X has been blocked since February 2021 when authorities took aim at the app for its use by opponents of the military queue that overthrew Anan suuk civilian government since then the Jun has kept a tight grip on internet access in Myanmar Pakistan blocked access to X around the time of elections in February 2024 with the interior Ministry citing National Security concerns users had reported problems using the platform since mid-February when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party called for protests against a government officials admission of vote manipulation meanwhile ex users in almost all the countries where the site has been banned have found a way to get around the block they have been connecting to X via a virtual private Network or VPN to access the platform known to serve as a hub for political or Civic action [Music]