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VPN demand surges in Brazil despite legal threat to fine users nearly $9,000 a day for using workarounds to access X


Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes threatened big fines if citizens used VPNs to access X after the site was banned. Demand for VPNs surged anyway.

Brazilians are fighting back against the country's ban on the social media platform X, sending demand for VPNs skyrocketing despite threats that users could be fined nearly $9,000 a day for finding workarounds to access Elon Musk's site. X was banned in Brazil on Friday, escalating a monthslong public feud between Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over content moderation concerns and free speech. "I've used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social networks," Maurício Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said in a post on X before the blockade went into effect, according to an AP translation.

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