Freedom of speech... or freedom to switch?

The ongoing feud between Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk, which seems never-ending, has recently taken a new turn, highlighting how external pressure can shift even the strongest of stances — especially when there’s market share involved.

This week brought news that X (formerly Twitter) is cooperating with the Brazilian Supreme Court to meet the requirements needed to lift the platform’s ban in Brazil. This seems, however, to contradict Mr. Musk’s original stance of “defending free speech at all costs” versus Supreme Court Justice Moraes’ efforts to curb the spread of fake news and hate speech on social media.

Since the X ban at the end of August, the platform has seen a consistent drop in user numbers, testament to the influence of Brazilians on the social network.

Other microblogging platforms have reaped the rewards, with BlueSky gaining over 10 million new users since X was banned in Brazil. Portuguese has already become the platform’s most used language, and the influx of users prompted BlueSky to introduce new features, such as video uploading. This shift has also fostered a sense of community responsibility on the platform, as it has been quicker to regulate hate speech than X.

Whether BlueSky will be able to hold on to these Brazilian users after a potential return of X is unclear, and it is equally uncertain whether the spats between Messrs. Musk and Moraes will resurface.

Check out the creation of this cartoon here on The Brazilian Report’s TikTok account (@brazilianreport).

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