(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk’s X managed to bypass a ban of the social media network in Brazil though an automatic update of its software, an association of Brazilian internet providers said Wednesday.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Access to the platform abruptly returned overnight for many in Latin America’s most populous nation after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered it blocked last month in a clash with Musk. After waking to find X suddenly functioning again on their phones, Brazilian users were abuzz Wednesday with speculation on whether or not the ruling had been revoked.
The Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers, or ABRINT, explained later in the day that in its update X had changed its structure to use IP addresses associated with Cloudflare, a cyber security company in San Francisco. The internet-infrastructure provider works with millions of websites, helping many to route their traffic.
The structural changes in X “make blocking the app much more complicated,” ABRINT said in a statement. The group said that under X’s previous system, the platform used specific IP addresses, which can allow internet companies to identify where data is coming from.
Many of the IP addresses being used by X “are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP without affecting other services,” ABRINT added.
Neither X nor Brazil’s Supreme Court immediately responded to requests for comment. Cloudflare declined to comment.
The Supreme Court asked Brazil’s telecoms regulator, Brazil’s telecoms regulator, Anatel, to explain the unauthorized return of X, according to local media reports.
Anatel said in a statement that it “continues to monitor the blocking order. The surveillance results are reported directly to the Supreme Court.”
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading a campaign against fake news and hate speech, banned X in August after Musk refused to appoint a legal representative in Brazil and restrict certain accounts.
The world’s richest man has tried to portray the judge’s efforts as a dangerous example of state overreach and an attack on free speech, while Moraes’ supporters say the campaign is necessary to clean up the internet.
Earlier Wednesday, Brazil’s telecoms regulator, Anatel, said there was no change in the Supreme Court decision to ban X, formally known as Twitter.
(Correct spelling of company name in first deckheadline)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
