Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court banned X (formerly known as Twitter) on August 30, disrupting a crucial platform for crypto investors and causing widespread difficulties for Brazil’s crypto community.
The suspension came after Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the platform to be shut down, causing a major disruption to crypto information sharing in one of the most crypto-friendly regions in the world.
X was one of the most popular social media platforms for crypto participants globally, with 41.7% of users leveraging it to stay updated on digital assets, according to a report by cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko.
Before the ban, X ranked as the eighth most popular social media platform in Brazil, with 24.3 million users in 2023. Its sudden suspension has had far-reaching effects on Brazil’s crypto community, which heavily relied on X for regulatory updates and news.
Community Impact
Jessica Whitaker, a crypto investor and researcher based in Brazil, explained how this has complicated her work. She shared that many professionals in the digital asset sector depend on X to disseminate regulatory information. With the platform blocked, accessing important updates has become more difficult, particularly regarding the development of Brazil’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Drex.
“Platforms like ‘X’ facilitate the exchange of information between regulatory bodies and the market, something essential for emerging areas like digital assets,” Whitaker told Cryptonews. She expressed concerns that the lack of access to this information might delay progress on Drex and hinder Brazil’s competitiveness in the global digital assets sector.
Júnior Sperandio, an XRP community member and YouTuber in Brazil, also expressed his frustrations, explaining that X was his primary source of information. “I educate Brazilians about digital assets, and X was my main source of information,” Sperandio said. “I also followed the entire XRP and Ripple community on X.”
Similarly, Christiano Silva, a digital asset researcher, mentioned that the ban has severely disrupted his ability to gather real-time updates. “X was a central hub for professionals and enthusiasts in the financial sector. The platform’s ban has significantly impacted my work,” Silva noted. Both Sperandio and Silva believe the loss of X has set back Brazil’s crypto community by limiting access to essential information, particularly at a time when regulatory developments are accelerating.
Will X Get Reinstated In Brazil?
Unfortunately, it may take some time before X is reinstated in Brazil. Just recently Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) urged the country’s Supreme Court to dismiss legal actions challenging the ban on X.
The PGR argued that suspending Elon Musk’s social media platform does not violate free speech rights. It was also stressed that the lawsuits against the ban lack legal grounds. Silva pointed out that the social media platform’s return to Brazil is directly tied to institutional parameters, particularly politics.
“Since we don’t have access to this information, it’s impossible to say how long it will take for X to become available to the Brazilian public again,” he said. “However, in my opinion, I believe this process will take some time due to the issues that led to the platform’s suspension, which remains unresolved at this point.”
In the absence of X, many Brazilian crypto enthusiasts have turned to decentralized social media platforms for updates. One such platform is Farcaster, a decentralized social media protocol launched in 2020 by former Coinbase alumni Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan.
Farcaster has experienced rapid growth this year, increasing its user base from 4,318 in January to 68,485 in August. While most of Farcaster’s users are based in Europe, 9% are located in South America, offering a potential alternative for Brazilian crypto users seeking a replacement for X.
Alex Masmej, CEO and founder of Draculaapp, a decentralized social media app built on Farcaster, highlighted the resilience of decentralized networks. “Decentralized networks like Farcaster have many hubs, or nodes, that hold social media data,” Masmej said. “You can’t shut down Farcaster in a single country because of this. It’s much harder to kill something that is open.”
In addition to Farcaster, the social network MeWe is becoming a popular alternative to X. MeWe was founded by internet and crypto entrepreneur Mark Weinstein. MeWe resembles Facebook, but doesn’t contain ads or targeting.
Jeffrey Edell, CEO of MeWe, told Cryptonews that the social media platform takes a privacy-first approach, allowing all users to own and control their own information. “Social media today has lost its way, the networking and relationship based platforms we first connected with are now flooded with ads, bots and less and less ways for individuals to express the true version of themselves,” Edell said. “With over 20 million users and 700,000 groups, MeWe is in a strong position to help people that are looking for alternative ways to be social online today.”
Challenges Remain for X Users in Brazil
Despite the availability of decentralized alternatives, many in Brazil’s crypto community are still struggling without X. Silva shared that since the ban, the quality and accuracy of the information he receives about the crypto space have diminished. “The crypto community in Brazil lost a lot because of this. This represents a significant setback for the country,” he remarked.
