Return of internet boundaries as Brazil bans X
|Published
X (formerly known as Twitter) is now officially banned in Brazil. It’s not the first time the app is banned. X and its former incarnation, Twitter, has been banned in several countries, such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Türkiye, Nigeria and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before.
Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the “Twitter revolution”, but it has since been restored.
The X ban in Brazil, however, is different. The ban has also affected another Elon Musk-led business, Starlink. The bank accounts of the satellite internet company have been frozen to pay for X penalties.
This ban seems to mark the beginning of an internet with boundaries. When the internet became popular, one of its outstanding features was its lack of boundaries. A product such as X could be accessible from anywhere in the world as long as internet was operational in that area.
Adhering to the laws of countries where it operated was not a hard requirement. As long as companies were obeying US laws, they could do almost anything they wanted in other parts of the world.
Enter the internet led by characters like Musk, who outspokenly advocate for certain ideologies without regard for laws beyond the US. He has been openly speaking about freedom of speech and, therefore, defending some decisions by the X platform. In some instances, he has allowed some accounts that are perceived to be controversial. This practice of allowing anything to be said on X does not sit well with some authorities beyond the US. What complicates matters is that the X owner has also entered the political arena, at least in speech.
Although Musk is shielded by US laws, legal frameworks in other countries are not allowing his version of freedom. The X ban in Brazil may strengthen the resolve of some authorities that banning platforms that violate their laws is one way of dealing with them. For a very long time, platforms enjoyed a boundary-less status with no legal consequences. It seems authorities are no longer willing to tolerate tech giants violating their national laws.
If this is true, X and other platforms could be in trouble in a number of countries and territories beyond the US.
It has to be understood that this move by Brazil has been a long time coming. The country has been experiencing misinformation on the platform. Judge Alexandre de Moraes, requested a removal of troublesome accounts and this was ignored. This also led to a decision by Musk to have no physical presence (or staff) in Brazil. This is against the law in Brazil. It has been a norm for tech companies to have no physical presence in a country while they operate. Most of them operate for many years in a country without a physical office and this has detached them from national matters. They often operate outside national laws and have managed to avoid accountability.
The ban on X will serve as a wake-up call for a number of countries whose laws have been ignored by technology companies. Although countries have been concerned about misinformation online, it’s been difficult for them to hold technology companies accountable. Brazil is showing all countries that it’s possible to ban tech companies and that they are not above the law.
Tech companies will have to tread carefully going forward to remain corporate citizens in other countries.
Wesley Diphoko is a Technology analyst and the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine.
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