BRAZIL FINES ELON MUSK'S X, STARLINK $920, 000 PER DAY OVER BRIEF RESTORATION OF X PLATFORM AMID BAN. (PHOTO).

 Brazil Fines Elon Musk’s X, Starlink $920,000 Per Day Over Brief Restoration Of X Platform Amid Ban

A Brazilian court has imposed a fine of five million reais ($920,000; £695,000) on Elon Musk’s companies, X (formerly Twitter) and Starlink, after users in the country briefly accessed the social media platform X, despite a ban imposed last month.

The unexpected access happened on Wednesday after the company updated its server configurations, but the platform was quickly blocked again.

According to reports, X switched its network provider within Brazil, which inadvertently allowed the platform to be accessed again. In a statement, the company acknowledged the error, explaining that “a change of network providers resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users.”

Despite X’s explanation, the incident prompted Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes to accuse the company of a deliberate “trick” to bypass the ban. He fined X and Musk’s satellite company, Starlink, more than $920,000 for each day the platform remained accessible in Brazil.

Judge de Moraes has had a long-standing feud with X, which began in April when he ordered the suspension of several X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation. However, the platform was originally banned in August after it failed to meet a court-mandated deadline to appoint a legal representative in the country.

Observers in Brazil are sceptical about X’s claim of inadvertent access. Basílio Rodriguez Pérez, an advisor to ABRINT, Brazil’s leading trade group for Internet Service Providers (ISP), suggested that the move seemed deliberate. “Everything that happened during the day led us to believe that it was on purpose,” Pérez remarked.

ABRINT’s tests revealed that X had shifted to Cloudflare-hosted servers and was using dynamic IP addresses, making it harder for the government to block the platform effectively.

“Many of these IP [addresses] are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP [address] without affecting other services,” Pérez explained.

The conflict with Musk’s companies extends beyond X. Earlier this year, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet company, suggested it would allow Brazilian users to access X through its satellite service. However, the company backed down after Brazil’s telecommunications regulator threatened to revoke its operating licence.