Cloudflare is helping Brazil block X, Elon Musk’s platform, which had managed to temporarily escape the ban.

X’s migration to Cloudflare revitalized the platform in Brazil, but Cloudflare then isolated X’s traffic.

Elon Musk’s X has temporarily become accessible in Brazil, despite government orders requiring internet providers to block the social network. This resumption was made possible by the migration of X to a new network provider, Cloudflare. However, Cloudflare implemented changes that allowed ISPs to resume blocking X.

“When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to serve Latin America became inaccessible to our team,” said X’s Global Government Relations account last night. ”To ensure optimal service for our users, we changed operators, which resulted in a temporary restoration of access for Brazilians. While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again soon, we continue to work with the Brazilian government to quickly return to Brazil.”

X’s statement that the restoration of service in Brazil was “inadvertent” surprised Abrint, a trade group that represents Brazilian ISPs. Basilio Rodriguez Pérez, a representative of Abrint, told the BBC: “Everything that has happened over the course of the day has led us to believe that it was intentional.”

Over the last fortnight, internet providers, including Elon Musk’s Starlink service, have blocked X under government orders. Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the blockade after X refused to suspend accounts accused of spreading disinformation, including profiles of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Moraes also seized US$ 2 million from a Starlink bank account and US$ 1.3 million from an X account to cover fines imposed on the platform.

After X’s resurgence, de Moraes issued a new order, stipulating a daily fine of more than US$900,000 for non-compliance with the order to suspend operations in Brazil. Starlink could be forced to pay this fine, since Brazil considers the companies controlled by Musk to be an economic group. The judge also ordered Anatel, Brazil’s telecoms regulatory agency, to ensure that the blockade on X is reinstated.

Cloudflare isolates X’s traffic to make it possible to re-implement blocking.

Although X’s statement did not explicitly mention its new network provider, reports indicate that the platform has started routing its traffic through Cloudflare. This means that blocking the IP addresses used by X could inadvertently make other sites that depend on Cloudflare inaccessible.

A source close to Cloudflare, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the business relationship, told the Associated Press that the network service provider did nothing specifically to help X circumvent the ban in Brazil. Instead, X’s recent migration to Cloudflare may be the reason why the block is not working as it should. This source added that this temporary solution probably won’t last long.

Cloudflare has reportedly agreed to isolate X’s traffic, allowing ISPs to resume blocking the platform without affecting other sites that use its services. This change came about after Cloudflare was contacted by Anatel, Brazil’s telecommunications regulatory agency.

“You can’t just block Cloudflare, because that would affect half the Internet,” said Perez, according to the New York Times. He pointed out that Cloudflare’s services are used by many websites, including those of the Brazilian government and financial institutions.

However, hours later, the president of Anatel, Carlos Baigorri, said in an interview that Cloudflare had agreed to isolate X’s traffic, allowing Brazilian providers to block it easily. Baigorri pointed out that “Cloudflare has been extremely cooperative”.

We contacted Cloudflare requesting information on the changes implemented and the specific services used by X, but received no response. A Cloudflare spokesperson directed us to the X statement mentioned above.

Dynamic IP addresses

Abrint has released a statement explaining how X’s use of Cloudflare has made it difficult for ISPs to comply with Brazil’s blocking order. Before migrating to Cloudflare, X used “specific, blockable IPs”, but is now operating with dynamic IP addresses that change constantly and are shared with several other services.

“The main difficulty in blocking Cloudflare is that it works as a reverse proxy, with IPs that change frequently,” said Abrint. “Blocking Cloudflare would mean not only restricting X, but also affecting several other services that depend on this infrastructure, negatively impacting the Internet as a whole.”

Yesterday, Abrint recommended that ISPs avoid acting unilaterally and wait for guidance from Anatel before directing their actions.

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