Brazil's Crypto Community Affected By Prohibition Of X (Twitter)

Brazil's crypto community is affected by the ban on X (Twitter) (Photo; Doc. Barak)

JAKARTA - The Brazilian court decided to block access to social media platform X (previously known as Twitter) on August 30, 2024. This decision has rocked the crypto community in Brazil, which relies heavily on X as a major source of information about the latest developments in the digital asset industry. This ban not only disrupts the flow of important information to crypto investors, but also raises concerns about the future of regulation and innovation in the sector.

X has become one of the main platforms for global crypto players, including in Brazil. According to a report from CoinGecko, about 41.7% of global crypto users rely on X to get the latest news about digital assets. In Brazil, X is the eighth most popular social media platform with 24.3 million users by 2023. This ban has a significant impact on the crypto community in the country, which is now losing access to a very important source of information.

Quoted from Crypto News, Jéssica totals, a crypto researcher and investor in Brazil, raising concerns about the impact of this decision. Many professionals in the digital asset sector rely on X to disseminate information about regulations," he said. In particular, developments regarding the digital assets of Brazil's central bank, Drex, are now more difficult to access.

J waynior Sperandio, a YouTuber and member of the XRP community in Brazil, also felt the big impact of this ban. X is the main source of my information to educate Brazilians about digital assets," he said. Sperandio regretted that this ban occurred when crypto regulation was growing rapidly in Brazil.

Christiano Silva, a digital asset researcher, said the same thing. He explained that X is a major center for professionals and fans of the financial sector to gain real-time information. Loss of access to X, according to Silva, has significantly harmed his work and research.

Although many hope that this ban will soon be lifted, the future of X in Brazil remains unclear. Recently, the Brazilian Attorney General's Office (PGR) urged the Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit challenging the ban, arguing that this ban does not violate the right to free speech. According to Silva, X's return to Brazil relies heavily on the country's political institution's decision, and this process is expected to take a long time.

In this situation, several members of the crypto community in Brazil began switching to decentralized social media platforms as an alternative. One of the platforms that began to rise in popularity was Farcaster, which was launched in 2020 by former alumni of Coinbase. Farcaster has experienced rapid growth with an increase in user numbers from 4,318 in January 2024 to 68,485 in August 2024. Although most of its users are in Europe, 9% of them are from South America, including Brazil.