X is reportedly back online for many users more than two weeks after its services were blocked in Brazil, but the change isn’t due to the Brazilian government shifting its stance towards the Elon Musk-owned platform. X appears to have started using Cloudflare’s DNS services, which for now is helping the social network get around the Brazilian government’s restrictions, but it’s unclear for how long that will last.
X has been blocked in Brazil since the end of August, when Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered Brazilian internet service providers to block X after months of public feuding with Musk over X’s refusal to block certain accounts. The dispute also affected SpaceX-owned Starlink, whose Brazilian bank accounts were frozen amid the dispute.
Now, The New York Times reports that X is starting to come back online for many in Brazil, though service is still somewhat unstable. The company’s move to Cloudflare appears to have helped it get back online, at least temporarily. As it stands, it appears Brazilian ISPs are still trying to figure out how to continue complying with the court order. If that fails, Brazilian authorities will likely look for new ways to enforce the block. Regulators in the country have imposed heavy fines on users who try to circumvent the country’s ban by using VPNs.
