Why life in Brazil after a Twitter ban is a warning to Elon Musk

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Brazilians are tech-savvy and communicative people. They are also, generally, fiercely proud of their country, an imperfect global south superpower; the poorest of the rich countries and the richest of the poor, as a dear friend – who I met on Twitter – once told me.

While relatively stubborn rates of adult functional illiteracy guaranteed that Twitter would never go on to have the reach of Facebook, Instagram or even TikTok, in a golden period from 2012 until 2022, Twitter was a genuine forum of debate.

Brazilian Twitter was filled with footballers, journalists, Youtubers and politicians, it was a space to watch the country’s politics play out; Bolsonaro became the most followed politician.

Most country character traits are double edged.

Britain’s penchant for (mostly hilarious) self-deprecating humour can be a bit tiresome online. Something about Brazil’s generalised congratulatory approach, a kind of online joie de vivre, like the country itself, carries a seductive charm.

Perhaps it’s the fact that, outside of the internet, many Brazilians live incredibly difficult lives. Of the G20 economies, only South Africa and Mexico match it in terms of inequality and murder.

Access to the online world in Brazil has far outpaced citizens rights in the real world; poorer Brazilians post selfies on new smartphones they bought on credit but too often are forced to live in crime ridden neighbourhoods without access to basic sanitation.

Of course, like Twitter everywhere else, it could be a cesspit too, also in its own Brazilian way. Violent images of murder, vicious gossip, tedious one-upmanship and fake news, were also part of the Brazilian Twitter experience.

Things noticeably changed for the worst after Musk finally took it over in late 2022: the number of followers I had began to drop by the day, I no longer saw the posts I wished to see, the pictures of Brazilian beaches and fried snacks got more traction than stories I’d spent months researching and writing due to the demotion of Tweets with links.

“We never see each other (on Twitter) anymore,” a fellow correspondent friend told me over coffee in a bakery earlier this year.

By the end I was barely posting once a day. As with our relationships with people, it is often external factors beyond our control that cause our relationships with things to fall apart.

On September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, some 45,000 pro-Musk and pro-Bolsonaro supporters gathered on Paulista Avenue, São Paulo’s main thoroughfare. Wearing a gold and green Brazil football shirt atop a sound truck, Bolsonaro called for an “amnesty” regarding Brazil’s January 8 2023 attacks in the capital Brasília and referred to Justice Moraes as a “dictator”.

Some friends and colleagues have been using Twitter with a VPN, as a way to beat the ban. Justice Moraes initially said VPN users would face a heavy fine, but shortly after backed down. Most observers agreed it would be difficult to enforce.

Personally, I haven’t bothered with the VPN. Like many others in Brazil, I have switched to Bluesky, a Twitter alternative with around 10m users. I am slowly, if not enthusiastically, trying to claw back my following.

Then, towards the end of September, there were rumblings that the ban wouldn’t hold. While on a flying visit to England, at my parents’ house in suburban Essex, where I had Tweeted a bit as a tourist, I read the news that it had briefly been reinstated back in Brazil, only to go off again.

Musk had named a legal representative, it appeared that it was coming back. But perhaps the damage has already been done. Many Brazilians I hear from say they are now committed to BlueSky.

Back in Brazil, at the time of writing, Twitter remains off. Apparently it’s coming back. But who cares?

I can’t say I miss it right now. But I suspect that in time I’ll begin to post more elsewhere to fill a void. It would be nice if it returned, not least of all so I could share this article there.

While Instagram is good enough for scrolling headlines in the morning, it’s less useful for communicating ideas, and more time-consuming, while Bluesky and Threads (Meta’s text-based social network) still don’t have the reach of Twitter.

While my work has been published by Brazil’s top newspapers and websites, in general, the majority of my job involves me trying to explain Brazil to foreigners. Without access to Twitter (at least without using a VPN) and with BlueSky full of Brazilians who know more about Brazil than I, where do I stand?

If the ban continues and indeed, as perhaps appears more likely, Twitter’s decline does too, it’s inevitable that journalism from Brazil will suffer, as will culture and communication in general, at least in the short term until we reinvent or find something better.

For the science community especially, in a time of climate crisis in which Brazil is one of the world’s most important protagonists, the ban has been frustrating. According to a report in Nature, without the platform, Brazilian scientists have not been able to post about research or communicate with collaborators.

Ultimately, the lessons of this ban have not been about technology itself but how humans use it. For the 2010s, a decade of decentralised mass protests and frustrated revolutions, including in Brazil, Twitter was perhaps the technology best suited to the moment.

For me, Twitter’s ban in Brazil is not an issue of free speech. As mentioned, Musk has caved to the demands of countries in the past, albeit after some initial resistance. While Justice Moraes can credibly be accused of overreach, in some cases at least, the Twitter ban follows a familiar pattern in Brazil and the wider question of big tech vs national sovereignty. It’s just that Musk has been more theatrical about it.

If this episode has shown me anything, it’s that we journalists – and humans in general – are adaptable creatures, able to break our tech habits and move on quickly. Big tech CEOs would do well to remember that.

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