X skirts Brazil ban and returns to some users with change to server access

Some Brazilian users reconnected with X on Wednesday despite the Supreme Court's recent nationwide ban, the result of the social network apparently changing the way its servers are accessed. The reunion may be short-lived, however.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked nationwide on Aug 30 after months of tension with billionaire Elon Musk surrounding orders to take down accounts and the limits of free speech in Brazil. He also established fines on anyone using virtual private networks (VPN) to access the platform.

That rendered X effectively inaccessible in the country until Wednesday, with AP journalists among those who had access. Experts examining X's IP addresses said there are indications that the company has begun routing users through the servers of Cloudflare, a content delivery network, en route to its own.

"The service that Elon Musk's social network has started using works like a digital shield that protects the company's servers," said Pedro Diogenes, Latin ...