Musk's X skirts Brazil ban and returns to some users with change to server access

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Some Brazilian users regained access to X on Wednesday despite a nationwide ban put in place by the country's Supreme Court, a reunion apparently resulting from the social network changing the way its servers are accessed.But the renewed access may be short-lived.Late last month, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked nationwide after months of tension with the site's billionaire owner Elon Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.De Moraes also set fines for anyone using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access the platform.That rendered X effectively inaccessible in the country until Wednesday, when an Associated Press journalist was among those who regained access.

The number of X posts made in Brazil rose from 939,000 Tuesday to more than 2 million by late afternoon Wednesday, data analysis company Bites said.Experts examining X's IP addresses — numeric designations that identifies sites' location on the internet — said there are indications the company has begun routing users through the servers of Cloudflare, a content delivery network, en route to its own.“The service that Elon Musk’s social network has started using works like a ‘digital shield’ that protects the company’s servers,” Pedro Diogenes, Latin America’s technical director for CLM, a distributor that focuses on cybersecurity.

It acts as a proxy between users and X's servers, filtering traffic and preventing the original IP address from being recognized, Diogenes told the AP.Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel said it is looking into the situation and will report its findings to the Supreme Court, noting that there has been no change to de Moraes' ruling.A panel of fellow justices later upheld his decision, though it hasn’t yet gone before the court’s full bench.

His fine for VPN users in particular has faced blowback, including from the nation’s bar association.The Supreme Court declined to comment on possible ac...