In the battle between Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the biggest losers are Brazilians. They are now at risk of being stripped of VPNs while facing massive fines if they somehow get around a countrywide ban on ExTwitter.
Yesterday, I wrote about the standoff between Elon Musk and Brazil, and how neither side comes out of it looking very good. Where it was left was that Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was (1) freezing Starlink assets and (2) threatening to ban ExTwitter entirely from the country.
As we noted, there was nothing particularly new about the second point. Brazil has done this in the past with WhatsApp and Telegram. The freezing of Starlink’s assets already appeared to be an overreach and suggested how far Moraes would be willing to go in this posturing battle.
Apparently, he was willing to go even further, to the point of potentially blocking VPNs entirely.
On Friday, it was announced that ExTwitter would indeed be banned across Brazil. But what may be most interesting (or, rather, scary) is the method. First, ISPs and app stores have been ordered to block access to the app within five days. That’s not all that new, even if it is generally problematic. Countries simply should not be banning apps on the open internet.
But then it gets worse. The original ruling said that app stores are also told they need to ban VPNs. Here’s a translation of the order.
(2.1) APPLE and GOOGLE in Brazil to insert technological obstacles capable of making it impossible for users of the IOS (APPLE) and ANDROID (GOOGLE) systems to use the “X” application and remove the “X” application from the APPLE STORE and GOOGLE PLAY STORE stores and, similarly, in relation to applications that enable the use of VPN (‘virtual private network’), such as, for example: Proton VPN, Express VPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, TOTALVPN, Atlas VPN, Bitdefender VPN;
(2.2) That manage backbone access services in Brazil, so that they insert technological obstacles capable of making it impossible for users of the “X” application to use it;
(2.3) Internet service providers, represented by their Presidents, such as ALGAR TELECOM, OI, SKY, LIVE TIM, VIVO, CLARO, NET VIRTUA, GVT, etc…, to insert technological obstacles capable of making the use of the “X” application unfeasible; and
(2.4) Those who manage personal mobile service and switched fixed telephone service, to insert technological obstacles capable of making the use of the “X” application unfeasible;
I initially thought that first section couldn’t possibly mean that app stores also had to ban VPNs. But that’s what it pretty clearly says and what multiple Brazilian reports claim.
The end result is taking away VPNs from millions of Brazilians, which is an awful lot of collateral damage just because Elon Musk is a jackass. VPNs have many legitimate uses other than accessing ExTwitter after a ban in Brazil.
A few hours after the decision, Moraes seemed to walk back that section of the ruling, though perhaps only temporarily. In a second short ruling, he “suspended the execution” of that item “until there is a statement from the parties in the proceedings” in order to “avoid any unnecessary and reversible inconvenience to third-party companies.”
In other words, after Moraes hears from “the parties in the proceedings,” the VPN ban could come back. It’s unclear if that’s just ExTwitter, or if Apple/Google are included, given they were the ones directed to block VPNs.
Then, the original order (in a part that has not been rescinded) also threatens to fine anyone who is able to get around the block nearly $9,000 dollars per day:
(3) THE APPLICATION OF A DAILY FINE of R$50,000.00 (fifty thousand reais) to individuals and legal entities that engage in conduct involving the use of technological subterfuges to continue communications carried out by “X”, such as the use of VPN (‘virtual private network’), without prejudice to other civil and criminal sanctions, as provided by law.
When Brazil tried banning Telegram recently, this element was in there too, with the fines being twice as high. Though apparently it was never used.
Either way, this got a lot of attention very quickly. The NY Times notes that civil society folks are spooked by the VPN demands:
“This is the first time they asked for VPN blocking. This is something unprecedented,” Paula Bernardi, a Brazil-based policy adviser at the Internet Society, which pushes for an open internet. She said the Brazilian government could potentially now ask VPN providers to reveal who used their services to access X. “That’s going to be a very heated debate,” she said.
I was already concerned about the efforts by Moraes here, even if Elon is being terrible in response. But it’s fucking crazy that he ordered Google and Apple to ban VPNs entirely and then also threatened huge fines to users of VPNs (even if there’s a low likelihood of it being enforced).
One other oddity in all this is that Apple apparently started banning VPNs from its iOS App Store last week, perhaps knowing this order was coming. But that only raises even more questions. Did Apple know the details of this “unprecedented” order a week early? Why would it agree to ban VPNs?
As I said on today’s Ctrl-Alt-Speech, neither side looks good here. Now that it’s turned into a kind of schoolyard fight between Moraes and Musk where each one seems to be going further and further to piss off the other, it’s getting worse and worse for the public. Indeed, I’ve seen some speculation that Moraes doesn’t even have the authority to issue such a widespread ban on VPNs, but no one seems to be stopping him either way.
This is no longer about policy or law. It’s just become about egos. And because of that, everyone loses*.
* With the possible exception of Bluesky, which has had a flood of users from Brazil in the past two days. I will remind people that I am on the board of Bluesky, but this is not how I want Bluesky to gain new users. Bluesky itself has many advantages, including that it would be much more difficult to “ban” the service like this given its decentralized nature. But seeing pissing matches between Musk and Brazil seems like an unfortunate way for it to get more attention.
