this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2024
569 points (97.8% liked)

Technology

59161 readers
1940 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Late on Friday afternoon, Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has been engaged in a dispute with X’s owner, Elon Musk, since April – ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in the country, “until all court orders … are complied with, fines are duly paid, and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country”.

He gave Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency 24 hours to enforce the decision. Once notified, the agency must pass the order on to the more than 20,000 broadband internet providers in the country, each of which must block X.

In an interview with the TV channel Globonews, the agency’s president, Carlos Manuel Baigorri, said the order had already been passed on to internet providers.

“Since we’re talking about more than 20,000 companies, each will have its own implementation time, but … we expect that probably over the weekend all companies will be able to implement the block,” he said.

Justice Moraes also summoned Apple and Google to “implement technological barriers to prevent the use of the X app by users of the iOS and Android systems” and to block the use of virtual private network (VPN) applications.

The decision imposes a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,800) on individuals and companies that attempt to continue using X via VPN.

(page 2) 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wait, there are 20,000 ISPs!?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

idk where that number came from, but there's a survey from 2022 listing 11,630 providers. That would average 2.08 per municipality and makes sense imo. The larger-scale telecom infrastructure is still an oligopoly though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I'm guessing they mean regional subsidiaries, Brazil is big, but not that big.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 months ago (7 children)

I'm kind of on the fence with this one.

As much as I dislike Twitter/X and it's owner; their 'crime' is refusing to silence the political opponents of those currently in power, then further refusing to pay fines for that decision.... Decisions, at least in principle, I agree with.

That said: I haven't actually seen the content that's at the center of this dispute; the posts of those political opponents. I'm also not very familiar with Brazils politics, so perhaps there's context I'm missing.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

their ‘crime’ is refusing to silence the political opponents of those currently in power

First they came for the christofascists who attempted a coup, and I didn't speak out 😔

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)

musk has no problems with taking down political opponents' xitter accounts when the request is coming from "right wing" governments (rather authoritarian or far-right)

he doesn't care about freedom of speech, he only cares about his kind of speech. If he refused all take down requests, i would agree with you

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

~~As far as I understand this is a right-wing authoritarian gov silencing left-wing opponent's.~~

~~Am i mistaken?~~

/pre-post edit: Yes, yes I am.

That certainly throws out any bit of sympathy I may of had... Though I still think they made the right decision to refuse to comply.

¯\(-_-)/¯ oh well.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 months ago (2 children)

When you’re too corrupt, even for Brazil, that really does say something.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They're more WhatsApp people than Twitter people anyway.

But this is pretty standard legal stuff. Musk just doesn't think he has to send a lawyer down to argue his case. He can blow it off, thinking that he's simply above the law.

It isn't even corruption, per say. It's just entitlement slamming into another state's basic sovereignty.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They're more WhatsApp people than Twitter people anyway.

I thought they are orkut people?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Orkut lmao that’s a deep cut. Remember my Brasilian friend growing up using it and I was like wtf is this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Well, maybe I’m just too GenX, but, to me, that’s a distinction without a difference. WhatsApp is texting with extra steps, and Twitter is for Nazis. I’ve never used the former and gave up the latter along with FB and insta early on during covid. Reddit was my last social whatever, and I jumped that ship last June for this last shout.

I’ve never had tiktaky or snapsnore. Most of my time on my phone is spent either here or listening to news podcasts— which is pretty much what I did as a teenager: listening to NPR as my morning routine then a news/music mix throughout the day.

Hmmm…. How unusual and a little confusing to be both impressed and disappointed in oneself… well that’s why some of our best paid scientists are furiously genetically engineering new strains of cannabis! So I don’t have to deal with this shit!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

WhatsApp is texting with extra steps, and Twitter is for Nazis.

No shortage of Nazis on Whatsapp. And not the Discount Donny Groypers, either. Real Boys From Brazil. People with an actual Nazi pedigree.

How unusual and a little confusing to be both impressed and disappointed in oneself

Eh. We all eat from the trough of ideology.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

lol, if you say so. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels a little let down with myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Tchau, Elon

[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 months ago (13 children)

sounds feasible except the "blocking the use of vpn apps" part?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Yeah, this left a bad taste.

At least he revoked this section of the decision a couple hours later.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that line was particularly concerning. I'm all for watching Elon get a Brazilian beatdown, but that feels like a pretty large overstep.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Justice Moraes had also said that any person in Brazil who tried to still use X via common privacy software called a virtual private network, or VPN, could be fined nearly $9,000 a day. But after swift backlash across Brazil, including from academics who have supported him, he reversed that move in an amended order late Friday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-x-blocked.html

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago

Good to see someone listening to people more knowledgeable than them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

At best that’s just unclear. Blocking VPNs isn’t impossible, just impractical. And it’s not like Brazil just became China. At worst, the just made accessing X impracticality expensive for its users— which, in Brazil, is a lot of people. In typical Brazilian fashion, they’re hitting Elon in the wallet.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›