Brazil’s X Ban: VPN Fines Mark New Internet Battlefield, Free Speech Advocates Say

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro hold a sign thanking X social media platform owner Elon Musk, during an Independence day rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sept. 7, 2024. NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP via Getty Images

Brazil’s enforcement of its ban on social media platform X, through fines for using VPNs, defines a potential battleground between internet freedom and regulation, according to free speech and privacy activists.

Last month, Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered all telecom providers in the country to block access to X, escalating a months-long dispute between X owner Elon Musk and the Latin American country over free speech and posts that the judge described as misinformation.

The judge imposed daily fines of $8,900 for anyone caught bypassing the ban using VPNs (virtual private networks), which allow people to access the internet as if they were located in a different country.

While Brazil lacks advanced censorship infrastructure like China and Russia have, and VPN tracking remains complex, experts said the move signals a new level of digital enforcement that could inspire similar actions in other countries.

Since the introduction of the penalty, equal to nearly a year’s salary for the average middle-class Brazilian, there has been a documented decrease in attempts to access X.

Circumvention Via VPN

While some Brazilian congressmen have continued using X despite the ban, it is not known whether they are using VPNs.

Others, such as the country’s National Association of Journalists, expressed concerns on Facebook that reporters no longer have access to news reports from various sources, both inside and outside Brazil.

A spokesman from the U.S. nonprofit Unredacted, which provides free services to help people evade censorship, told The Epoch Times that it will be up to Brazilian telecom firms and internet service providers (ISPs) to enforce the bans.

To date, there have been no reports in Brazilian media of individuals or companies being notified by Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) about the use of VPNs.

The spokesman said that it’s “not necessarily true in every case that the government may be aware of a person’s VPN usage.”

He cited a post on X by Vinicius Fortuna, engineering lead at Google’s Jigsaw, a unit within the tech company that explores threats to open societies.

Fortuna explained that Brazil blocks X through DNS (domain name system) and IP (internet protocol) blocking. DNS blocking prevents the website from being found, while IP blocking stops all traffic to the website’s server, making it completely inaccessible.

According to data from the Open Observatory of Network Interference, a tool that tracks internet censorship and network disruptions by analyzing data from various ISPs, there has been a significant drop in access to X in Brazil since the Supreme Court order, although exact percentages of user decline are not specified.

The Unredacted spokesman said that VPN usage surveillance depends on whether telecom companies or ISPs are monitoring and reporting it to the government, and it’s currently unclear whether that is happening.

“Subterfuge of their censorship is now punishable. It seems likely that they may pursue some means of looking for people who use a VPN to circumvent the block, whether that’s a technical or non-technical process,” he said.

Elon Musk speaks at an AI conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 6, 2024. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

He added that in countries such as China, where there is a close relationship between telecoms and the government, VPN monitoring often happens automatically, or there may be informal agreements that allow the government access to communications infrastructure.

“Countries like China are certainly able to monitor VPN usage within the country and currently block VPN usage at scale,” the spokesman said.

He added that other countries might learn from Brazil’s actions.

“They could use this information to implement or get ideas about how to implement their own filtering systems,” he said.

Brazilian Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes arrives for a court hearing, in Brasilia, Brazil, on June 22, 2023. Eraldo Peres/AP Photo

Free Speech

X is banned in countries with severe human rights restrictions, such as China, Russia, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Iran, and Pakistan.

Toby Young, founder and general secretary of The Free Speech Union, an organization dedicated to protecting free speech in Britain, told The Epoch Times by email that he believes that it is probable that VPNs are becoming a new battleground for internet freedom and regulation.

Young noted that in October 2023, British lawmakers passed the Online Safety Act, controversial legislation that polices online spaces and incentivizes companies to take down content, and he added, “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this government makes it unlawful to use VPNs.”

The U.S faith-based legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International also warned that Brazilian authorities have created “one of the most oppressive cultures of censorship in the Western Hemisphere—one which could spread across the West.”

On Sept. 12, in an open letter to the Brazilian congress by ADF International, more than 100 international free speech advocates, including former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and “Twitter Files” journalist Michael Shellenberger, said that if Brazil is allowed to continue “in this authoritarian vein” other countries across the West “could likely follow in its footsteps, imposing draconian orders to silence speech and banning digital meeting places.”

“Heavy-handed government censors will use whatever tool at their disposal to chill speech—and as Brazil shows us that includes fining people for using VPNs to access disfavored platforms,” ADF’s senior vice president of corporate engagement, Jeremy Tedesco, told The Epoch Times by email. ”This reminds us that the censor knows no bounds and that we must resist every attempt to trample our precious free speech rights.”

The screen of a laptop with 'VPN' written in the search field of the Chinese search engine Baidu, on March 30, 2018. Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images

Complexity of VPN Tracking

Laura Tyrylyte, head of public relations at Nord Security (NordVPN), told The Epoch Times by email that tracking VPN usage to identify individuals accessing banned platforms is complex.

“Similar instances occur in some regions with heavier internet restrictions. However, enforcement of these bans can be inconsistent and difficult,” she said, urging users to remain cautious, adhere to local laws, and “understand the implications either way.”

Tyrylyte added that VPNs generally protect user activity and origin, making it challenging for authorities to pinpoint specific users unless there are technical slip-ups in the VPN service itself.

“This makes the task of finding and fining individuals who use VPNs particularly challenging,” Tyrylyte said. “We consider governmental attempts to ban certain applications to be of questionable gain because they limit the right for people to make free choices.”

Tyrylyte noted that the fines announced by Brazil for VPN usage have “understandably led to hesitancy” among users.

“This situation not only affects the decision of individuals to use VPNs but also has broader implications for VPN companies operating in the region,” she said.

The Epoch Times contacted Brazil’s Supreme Court for comment.