Next Friday, the NFL will stage Packers-Eagles in São Paulo, Brazil. This Friday, Brazil has banned one of the most popular social-media platforms in the world, throughout the entire country.
As explained by the New York Times, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered a nationwide ban of X, after owner Elon Musk refused to comply with a court order to suspend certain accounts.
“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” Musk declared on Friday.
The move marks the latest escalation in a feud between Musk and the legal system in a nation of 200 million. And the order comes with a potentially expensive twist. Anyone who uses a virtual private network (VPN) to access X could be fined close to $9,000 per day.
The order implementing the measure described Musk as an “outlaw,” claiming that he intends to “allow the massive spread of disinformation, hate speech and attacks on the democratic rule of law, violating the free choice of the electorate, by keeping voters away from real and accurate information.”
The Times takes a close look at the origin and development of the fight. Regardless of how and why and whether it should have happened, the current reality is that X can’t be used in Brazil, by anyone.
The NFL has not yet responded to an email from PFT seeking comment on the development. While the X ban has no impact on the game itself, the inability of fans and media to use X before, during, or after the contest will greatly impact the manner in which real-time commentary, news, images, and video can be disseminated to the United States, and elsewhere.
It obviously won’t impact the broadcast of the game, exclusively on Peacock and over-the-air television in the Green Bay/Milwaukee and Philadelphia markets.