VPNs surge in Brazil following X ban despite risk of a daily fine of nearly $10,000

New research from vpnMentor indicates VPN usage across Brazil has skyrocketed more than 1500% since the ban of Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

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Following a legal dispute between X and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Musk decided to halt all operations of the social media platform across Brazil. Furthermore, the Moraes instructed X to appoint a new legal representative by 7:97 PM Friday ET, which X didn't fulfill the request and informed the Supreme Court justice it won't be complying with the demands.

Following the deadline passing Moraes instructed Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency to block access to X. The instruction was passed on to more than 20,000 IPS across the country. In addition to the general population being severed from X there is also the R$50,000 ($8,900) fine for both individuals and companies using VPNs to circumvent the X ban and still access the Musk's social media platform. Despite the looming threat of an extremely expensive fine, VPN access across Brazil has surged by 1600%.

Brazil has more than 16 million X users, and according to the researchers, on the first day of the ban, VPN usage in the area increased by 469%, and so far, reaching 1600% as of August 31.