How Brazil's suspension of X is hurting 'stan Twitter'

The thriving “stan” communities on X that have helped define modern fandom and culture are a little quieter these days.

The thriving “stan” communities on X that have helped define modern fandom and culture are a little quieter these days.

The backbone of stan Twitter has been almost entirely silenced, an unintended casualty of Brazil’s move to suspend X for defying court orders to take down accounts and posts that violated its laws around political misinformation and hate speech. In recent years, “Come to Brazil!” had become a common refrain on the platform, owing to just how many Brazilians embraced it as a place to promote their favorite artists.

“We are not in the worldwide conversation,” Aianne Amado, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of São Paulo and professor at Federal University of Sergipe researching Brazilian fandom, said of the platform’s absence. “And without us, there is less discussion, less trends, less information, so I think the artists will suffer for sure.”

Alexandre de Moraes, the top justice on the Brazilian Supreme Court, banned X in the country last Friday until the company agrees to comply with the court’s orders. The court also ordered X to appoint a legal representative in the country to handle government takedown notices, as is required of social media companies by law. 

X refused to comply with the court’s orders and a panel of justices on the Supreme Court upheld de Moraes’ decision. Brazil has one of the largest user bases on X with over 21 million users, according to Statista. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/brazils-suspension-x-hurting-stan-twitter-rcna169518

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