Musk’s X Evades Brazil Ban by Switching to Cloudflare IPs

Elon Musk’s social platform, X, has been banned in Brazil following a Supreme Court order by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who also mandated the freezing of the company’s assets in the country. Despite the ban, users have managed to access the platform via VPN. However, a recent update has enabled them to bypass the ban, according to Brazil’s internet providers’ association.

A CNBCTV18 report revealed that the ban resulted from a conflict of interest between Musk and a Supreme Court judge, tied to the blocking of certain accounts in the country. After the update, Brazilians noticed that the app was functioning normally, raising questions about whether the ban had been lifted. Meanwhile, X has announced the upcoming launch of X Payments in the US, securing licenses in 38 states, including Texas and California.

The Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications (ABRINT) explained that X modified its infrastructure to utilize IP addresses associated with Cloudflare, a provider that enhances security by filtering traffic. These changes made it difficult to block X, as its IP addresses were now shared with other legitimate services such as banks and major platforms, meaning blocking them could inadvertently disrupt essential services.

X clarified that these changes were temporary and helped them transition to new network providers. Despite this, the platform confirmed that it remains committed to working with the Brazilian government to restore services.

Supreme Court Justice de Moraes had initially blocked X due to Musk’s failure to appoint a legal representative in Brazil. Even so, X continued to trend as the most downloaded app in the country and was widely used by right-wing politicians.