In recent weeks, Brazil’s roughly 40 million X users have been at the mercy of Elon Musk and the country’s government. Back in April, a Supreme Court judge ruled that Musk ignored a court order requiring the company to block accounts that allegedly supported former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro and spread hate speech and misinformation. Alexandre de Moraes started investigating the social network.
On August 30, Brazil’s Supreme Court suspended X and gave his internet service provider five days to comply, allowing his fan account to send out a signal warning followers to remain silent.
During the blackout, several fan accounts of X and other Brazilians tried to direct their followers to platforms such as Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. The latter saw a spike of 2 million users in the days after the ban went into effect, increasing its total user count. Up to about 8 million. Tumblr, which has long served as a hub for fan activity, also saw a 350 percent increase in users, according to a report from TechCrunch. However, many users found it difficult to rebuild the following they had on X.
“For many companies, it is undeniable that the suspension of X has affected the way they communicate with their customers,” says Brazilian journalist Rafael Zahuko García. (His work has been featured in WIRED.) “The same goes for artists and influencers who have seen their key platforms for promotion disappear overnight.”
Those who weren’t able to migrate all their followers from X to other platforms vowed to keep their new accounts anyway. Isadora Vasconcelos, who runs the Miley Cyrus Brazil account, which has more than 93,000 followers, said: “While X is under the control of a businessman who thinks he is above the laws of the land.” , she and the other admins on the account said, “Please keep Bluesky and X, at least for a while, so we don’t have to start from scratch again.”
While the platform was down, fans also lost access to the archive and all the work they had put into curating it, leaving a “precious piece of pop culture history” in the memory in the process. points out Driessen. Even accounts that have been able to continue posting sporadically are still unavailable to domestic fans who want to scroll through old posts.
On September 18, fans rejoiced when X temporarily rerouted internet traffic to avoid a roadblock in Brazil. “I know this is just a shitty app, but this is where I feel safe,” wrote Tyce Garcia, who runs Taylor Swift’s @thalovestay account. “I’m not in a good place mentally. This past week has been the worst since I haven’t been here to distract myself.”
The grace period was short, but on September 20th, X’s lawyers informed the Supreme Court that they had found legal representation in Brazil, a step towards the platform’s resumption in the country. The company is now reportedly complying with some of Brazil’s other requests, with the hope that the X ban will be lifted, possibly as early as next week.
If that happens, and it looks like it will, Brazilian stans and their international followers will have access to the full range of communities they’ve built on Musk’s platform, including those who have already moved on. It will be.
Amaral points out that many fan accounts are linked to more progressive artists, so some may be reluctant to return to X due to a lack of moderation. “We know that for many fandoms, being part of a minority (in terms of gender, race, etc.) is an important aspect of identity,” she added. There is a symbiotic relationship between politics and pop culture, and that “after this kind of Ragnarok for fan accounts and fan culture in Brazil,” many people behind the accounts will have to consider whether they want to return. Amaral says.
Even before X was suspended, Beyoncé Brazil’s administrators were working on revising and building the website. Silveira says it’s nice to have something that is “100 percent ours.” “I think[the
Gabriel Leão contributed reporting from São Paulo.
