On Tuesday, Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed the country’s telecommunications agency, Anatel, to unblock X (formerly Twitter) within 24 hours. He stated that the platform has met “all the requirements necessary for the immediate return of activities.”
However, the app’s service won’t resume immediately. According to Brazilian news outlet Poder360, Anatel still needs to inform Brazil’s 20,000 internet service providers to lift the block, which will be done differently depending on their system.
The ban came after X, formerly known as Twitter, withdrew its legal representation in Brazil earlier this year. The platform had complied with court orders in August to block certain popular accounts in Brazil, leading Justice de Moraes to impose the ban on August 30th. Brazilian telecoms were given up to five days to block access to X nationwide.
In response to the latest developments, X’s Global Government Affairs account tweeted:
“X is proud to return to Brazil. Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.”
The unblocking process might have happened sooner. The platform had already paid its fines last week but mistakenly sent the funds to the wrong bank, causing a delay in lifting the ban until the error was corrected.
