Brazilian judge suspends X platform after it refuses to name a legal representative
Brazilian judge suspends X platform after it refuses to name a legal representative
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk's social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to name a legal representative in the country, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press.
They also froze assets from Starlink.
Meanwhile Starlink's direct to cell capability is only growing. If your phone has 4G, Starlink knows where it is.
So glad we have a private company that we have no affiliation with tracking practically every phone on the planet. Feels like this "feature" is illegal by way of wiretapping and stalking laws.
But, remember: looking up where his personal jet is flying to is bad
Remember the holy scriptures. It’s only oppression when the government does it. When it’s a private company it’s freedom!
Wiretapping requires a lot more than just locating the signal. The signals are encrypted.
Well the US has a pretty strong affiliation with SpaceX, given that they permit all their launches. Also, I can't imagine the US would get away with launching similar technology themselves as exclusively military satellites - other nations would object.
Meanwhile Starlink's direct to cell capability is only growing. If your phone has 4G, Starlink knows where it is.
This is all news to me, could someone please elaborate/share some resources?
I don't know anything about Starlink but I guess I should if it knows anything about me.
Starlink is a mobile internet platform by SpaceX. They currently have somewhere around 6,300 satellites up in low earth orbit, in complex shells covering most of the globe. These satellites aren't permanent, they're so low that they do experience some mild atmospheric drag, which causes them to eventually fall into the atmosphere and burn up. However SpaceX frequently launches more.
Over the last year or so SpaceX have been developing direct-to-cell capability, using 4G/LTE. This means you will be able to send and receive calls, texts and data over Starlink, direct from your mobile phone. This is only possible because of the low altitude of Starlink - conventional satellites are much higher up, and while they can send signals to your phone (eg GPS) they're too far away for your phone to reach back.
However, the flip side of this is that Starlink is effectively operating mobile phone masts up in space, globally. A network carrier on land already has the ability to triangulate your position using cell towers - they ping your phone from multiple towers, with this they can determine distance, and with 3 or more they can triangulate with increasing precision. This is kind of acceptable, because it's only the country you're in (or near to) that will be able to identify and locate you. However with SpaceX you have an American business that's effectively able to identify (through unique identifiers such as IMEI) and locate you via your phone almost anywhere in the world using their satellite constellation.
...as the ozone layer gets destroyed.
https://qz.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-ozone-layer-1851544567
Lmao they release aluminum oxides when they burn up, it's basically antipersperant in the upper atmosphere.
Ironically though, it will make us all sweat more.
we got an email about them being unable to process payments
the clock is ticking for starlink in brazil and it would be so fucking funny if they had to stop operations here because of elon's ego
But not who you are… right?
Your phone talks back to the satellite to establish a connection, and during this exchange your phone will provide its unique IMEI, as well as you SIM card details and phone number.
If your phone has 4G, Starlink knows where it is.
What do you mean by that?
If your phone can talk with a cell tower, the tower can work out how far away you are. With 3 or more towers they can determine your location by triangulation. When your phone talks with a cell tower, it identifies itself, including by providing your device's unique IMEI.
Starlink is effectively a bunch of moving towers in space. If 3 or more Starlink satellites can talk to your phone, then they can also determine your position. It's basically the same principle as GPS, except at a much lower altitude and over 4G/LTE bands, and the satellite receives signal back from your phone whereas with GPS it's one way from the satellite to your device.
A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country.
This is your chance to break free.
There is something that most news articles aren't paying attention to: the judge requested Google and Apple to remove VPN apps from their marketplaces. Not just apply fines to those who dare to use VPNs in order to access X, but removing the VPNs altogether. I mean, I use OpenVPN Client for making a LAN to connect my smartphone and my laptop together (so, for example, I can use KDE Connect between a smartphone over mobile network and a laptop over cable internet). I don't even have an X account, but a decision focused on that platform is extending its reaches beyond the intended target, affecting those who use VPN for professional and technical purposes.
He already backed down on this vpn ban, because he heard smarter people than him saying he should.
https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/radar/moraes-recua-de-decisao-sobre-veto-a-vpn-para-acessar-o-x/
Unfortunately people like routine. Look how many people went back to reddit after the mobile disaster.
"Hundreds"? Oh my God there are "hundreds" of them. A solid user base for a social media app there.
On the bright side, more people using VPNs.
Good.
However, I'm curious about how they plan to implement this, technologically.
Like will it be a court order to ISPs to block X at a DNS level?
Will Musk go full Qanon and make a big deal about making an X darknet site for Brazil or some dumb shit?
We live in a fucking circus, and the clowns are running the show.
Like will it be a court order to ISPs to block X at a DNS level?
Yes, I believe the next step is for the Telecomm Agency to issue an ordinance. Google and Apple now have to remove the app from the store. Apparently VPNs are also not allowed to access it but I dunno how that would even work.
Perhaps VPN servers in Brazil (I'm no lawyer) but people can choose to connect to servers outside the country.
Apparently VPNs are also not allowed to access it but I dunno how that would even work
That's the point: they can't. However, based by the judge's inquiry, the VPN apps are to be removed from app marketplaces, every single one of them. He asked Google and Apple to remove VPN apps altogether. This extrapolates the boundary of "blocking X", because VPNs aren't solely used for "bypassing ISP blocking", VPNs are also used to link two or more devices into the same LAN over ther Internet, but this will be affected as soon as these apps vanish from Brazilian marketplaces.
Like will it be a court order to ISPs to block X at a DNS level?
I think that's exactly it and how I understand this sentence:
Given that operators are aware of the widely publicized standoff and their obligation to comply with an order from de Moraes, plus the fact doing so isn't complicated, X could be offline as early as 12 hours after receiving their instructions, said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Center at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro.
Like will it be a court order to ISPs to block X at a DNS level?
It will be exactly this.
He's taking all vpn off Google and apple too. This is a terrible, dangerous and dumb decision despite how much I dislike Twitter and musk.
Edit: they just went back on the decision to remove vpn, so it's all good. Hooray.