X is reportedly back online for many people in Brazil, more than two weeks after the service was blocked in the country. The change, though, isn’t because Brazil’s government has reversed its stance on the Elon Musk-owned platform. Instead, it seems that X has begun using Cloudflare’s DNS service, which is for now helping the social network avoid the Brazilian government’s restrictions, though it’s unclear how long that will be the case.
X has been blocked in Brazil since the end of August, when the Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered internet service providers in the country to block X following months of publicly feuding with Musk over X’s refusal to block certain accounts. The spat also affected SpaceX-owned Starlink, which had its Brazilian bank accounts frozen amid the dispute.
Now, The New York Times reports that X is starting to come back online for many people in Brazil, though the service is still somewhat inconsistent.It seems that the company’s move to Cloudflare has at least temporarily enabled it to come back online. As it stands, Brazilian ISPs are likely figuring out how to continue to complying with the court order. Should they fail, Brazilian authorities are likely to look for new ways to enforce the block. Regulators in the country have imposed steep fines for users who attempt to get around the country’s ban by using VPNs.