No X in Brazil? No problem, Brazilians say

Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink backtracked Tuesday and said it will comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court justice’s order to block the billionaire’s social media platform, X.
Had Starlink continued to disobey de Moraes by providing access, telecommunications regulator Anatel could eventually have seized equipment from Starlink’s 23 ground stations that ensure the quality of its internet service, Arthur Coimbra, an Anatel board member, said on a video call from his office in Brasilia.

pezezin• 2 years ago

Considering how stupid of a name X is, I would say we just keep calling it Twitter and ignore Musk's derranged ideas.

tracker17• 2 years ago

I generally still call it Twitter. Even if I'm more inclined to agree with more of Musk's statements than not.

piva004• 2 years ago

Starlink announced they are following the Brazilian Supreme Court decision and blocking Twitter... So they aren't overcoming anything.

Zigurd2• 2 years ago

I think the Starlink constellation still has enough V1 satellites to need ground stations near where they are providing service a lot of the time.

rsynnott• 2 years ago

Absent that, it looks like someone just forgot to fill in a template; it's a _terrible_ name, perhaps the worst bit of naming from an ergonomics point of view since Google decided to create an un-google-able programming language.

jll29• 2 years ago

X = X11 R6

X = Twitter

X = variable in mathematics

Personally, I think the name should be changed back.

bartread2• 2 years ago

I agree, and suspect the majority of people do.

There's another article on the front page at the moment about grepability as an important metric for codebases.

Similarly, I think Googleability is an important metric for company, service, and product names: X ain't it (although fortunately I have little cause to Google anything related to X/Twitter on a regular basis).

amiga386• 2 years ago

Rocket Daddy thinks so too: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1830147680468607423

"POV: VPN companies after Brazil banned Twitter"

Banned what now, Elon?

rascul2• 2 years ago

I just never stopped calling it Twitter. Everyone already knows the name and twitter.com still works.

karmakaze• 2 years ago

Once we think of X as Ex (and forget about it entirely), we'll have one less to worry about.

phoronixrly• 2 years ago

https://archive.is/MrrMp

null_investor• 2 years ago

If you click around in X for a few minutes, I doubt you won't find nazi propaganda or downright illegal content.

The content moderation aspect just doesn't exist. It'll soon become yet another 4chan.

What I'm really surprised about is how X is still operating in the US or here in Europe.

bartread2• 2 years ago

I feel like this is a really different experience to my own current experience of Twitter.

My timeline notably isn't full of right-wing propaganda, whereas I know plenty of others who complain that this is the case, and who have even left because of it.

I don't understand what is causing people to have these really different experiences with the product, especially given the relatively minimal controls over timeline content that are available (basically follow/unfollow/block).

It's odd.

rascul2• 2 years ago

Twitter is filled with sports stuff for me, nothing nazi and almost nothing political. I use it exclusively for sports stuff, though.

WarOnPrivacy• 2 years ago

I don't understand what is causing people to have these really different experiences -- given the relatively minimal controls over timeline content

I offer that the purpose of exTwitter's algorithms is to choose different content for different people - and insufficient controls keep user consent from interfering with that.

As to why exTw algos choose what is chosen: The purpose of black boxes seems to be making sure users never, ever learn why.

dminik• 2 years ago

I went to check for myself. The posts for me seem to be split 50/50 between tech content from people I'm following and raging debates about whether Churchill is responsible for WW2 (due to some podcast with Tucker Carlson). As you might guess the second one is full of literal Nazi propaganda and Hitler apologists.

The rest is filled out with people dunking on Elon. My guess is that if I didn't have him blocked, his stuff would show up there too.

arkh2• 2 years ago

I don't understand what is causing people to have these really different experiences with the product

Imagine you're in a right wing bubble. You follow right wing people. Some of them start complaining about what some fringe left wing people post on X and link to those tweets. You follow those links. Now you just interacted with fringe left wing people. Little by little the mighty algorithm will start giving you what you seem to like: fringe left wing content. Now you're complaining about how X is full of those tweets.

Reverse left and right and you got the OP.

black_puppydog• 2 years ago

surprisingly, nearly all politicians, from municipal all thew way to european level, still have accounts there.

I often wonder and worry about how they and their social media teams must perceive the world and especially the electorate if they still hang out in this environment.

edit: and as a consequence, most journalists also still have at least an account there. same for them: how do they perceive the world? especially given the propensity for the right wing/fascists for commenting directly on the local news' websites...

tracker17• 2 years ago

About the same as left-wing/communists for commenting everywhere.

In the end, there are things that suck about a general freedom of speech and expression. With Twitter, you have the ability to block those that offend you, as does everyone else. I appreciate and use this function. What I don't want is for some huge opaque organization to decide on my behalf.

snehk• 2 years ago

What I'm really surprised about is how X is still operating in the US or here in Europe.

Me too, which is crazy. I remember when news outlets in Europe were complaining about how Russia forbids websites where people could talk freely, complained about arrests over social media posts. That was maybe a decade ago. Hearing "bad fake news hate speech bad" over and over again somehow does something, I guess. You start to seriously question why something that allows people to share text and pictures is not banned.

tracker17• 2 years ago

In the US, there is a constitutional callout to the freedom of speech/expression. This has been interpreted very broadly historically speaking. It would and should be very difficult to restrict this. And in my opinion this is the way things should be.

The path to dystopia is really easy to envision and must be resisted imo. I don't want to see a day where you can be arrested, or worse, for saying you don't like the President when someone else can hear or report you, or because the govt are spying on your phone.

Yes, this does mean protecting speech that I don't like as well. Twitter has a "following" tab, as well as the ability to block individuals you don't like. Between the two, you have all the control you need to avoid content you don't like. I don't need some large, opaque company, government or cabal to decide on my behalf what I'm allowed to, or not to see.

ulrischa• 2 years ago

I have not found a single nazi posting in my timeline. I guess there are some like in any other social network but the mass effect proclaimed can not be seen.

throw_pm23• 2 years ago

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." -Mark Twain

KevinMS• 2 years ago

If you click around in X for a few minutes, I doubt you won't find nazi propaganda or downright illegal content.

I just don't believe you.

How about you "click around X for a few minutes" and show us all the bad stuff you found.

tracker17• 2 years ago

That was pretty much my first thought... what kind of people are you following, if you see a lot of this kind of thing. I mostly use the "Following" tab now, as it's just more tuned to what I want to see and who I follow, even if it is political.

I also feel there are a lot of chaos operatives on the platform that are spewing garbage and these are likely foreign state actors as much as trolls. Which comes back to who you follow. I am perfectly fine as long as I can block individuals I don't like... I don't necessarily want the platform to do it for me.

tracker17• 2 years ago

What kind of vile people are you following?

pupppet• 2 years ago

Elon

nunobrito• 2 years ago

Lots of FUD against X.

That article should be considered more of an opinion than actual news.

tambourine_man• 2 years ago

Brazil is a meme machine. A trendsetter with disproportional importance.

Xitter was already a struggling, much duller shadow of its former self. This is another huge blow, perhaps the last.

Zigurd2• 2 years ago

Probably not the final blow, but Twitter will lose a bit more ad revenue in the same week CBS reported that The World Bank called BS on Elon's claims about content moderation and a few other ad buyers followed them out, and Twitter's MAUs will probably take a measurable hit. Elon suing Media Matters makes leaving that much more front of mind. Better to leave while Elon is distracted.

adamsb6• 2 years ago

Wild to see a newspaper so mercurial about censorship.

taylodl5• 2 years ago

Is banning a platform censorship? Wouldn't censorship involve banning specific posts on the platform?

slowmovintarget• 2 years ago

The ban is a direct result of refusal to censor, so this is 100% about censorship.

Recap: Judge requests censoring, X says "no," judge says censor or I'll throw your reps in jail, X withdraws reps, judge bans X (and started going after StarLink, SpaceX, and anything Elon's touched).

matheusmoreira3• 2 years ago

It's especially ironic because censoring the press is what got this judge started down this path.

A brazilian magazine ran a damning article on one of the supreme court judges. They created a "fake news" inquisition and appointed this judge as the head of it. First thing he does? Censor the magazine as "fake news".

It's under the umbrella of that "fake news" inquistion that X got ordered to censor political accounts.

walrushunter• 2 years ago

Wow, I can't believe the Washington Post is supporting censorship again. It's almost like "Democracy does in darkness" was a complete lie.

ceejayoz6• 2 years ago

Where in this article does the Washington Post take an organizational stance on the block?

ripjaygn3• 2 years ago

Cherry picking anecdotes.

There's a lot of people missing X as evidenced in this article https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazilian-judge-suspends-x-platfo...

EcommerceFlow4• 2 years ago

Why is it that modern liberal ideology is so censorship heavy? I want all of my "political enemies" to be on Twitter, I want the heads of Iran, North Korea, etc to be on twitter, I want "misinformation" to be on Twitter because the "solution" to all of the above is infinitely worse.

From what I've seen on new-twitter, no speech liberals used to say is now banned. It's just been opened up to the right, which I guess is the problem?

ceejayoz6• 2 years ago

From what I've seen on new-twitter, no speech liberals used to say is now banned.

Tweeting the mere word "cisgender" will get your post's visibility limited for "hateful conduct".

piva004• 2 years ago

It's just been opened up to the right, which I guess is the problem?

You really don't see any issue with giving access to hate speech through a mass media platform? What is your suggestion for a solution when Nazis and other hate groups can boost their messaging on a massive scale?

If you say "better education" or "let the marketplace of ideas work" I have a bridge to sell you.

EcommerceFlow4• 2 years ago

Hate speech is an arbitrary term used to censor political opponents, as there's no logical way to discern what is and isn't hate speech. I used to think that was obvious, and even others like Noam Chomsky agree with me, but I guess not. So no I don't see any issue, I'd prefer everyone have equal access to free speech, world wide.

On a slight separate thought, I've always wondered how much of a minority I am in that thinking these days. 10%? 5? 1? It's literally that "Yes, you are all wrong" meme come to life.

arkh2• 2 years ago

Your hate speech is some other group cultural norm.

The hate speech censorship is just how bullies managed to use political correctness to be able to bully again.

MrBurnsKin• 2 years ago

"I don't care about censoring opinions. I don't have any anyway"

No X in Brazil? No problem, Brazilians say

Related Stories