Hey everyone, Bit here. Twitter (now X) just got banned from Brazil after the company refused to comply with orders over misinformation on the platform.
What happened?
The Internet's main social space, Twitter/X, has been ordered to cease its service in Brazil by Brazil's Supreme Court. This comes after Musk posted an attack tweet related to Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordering Twitter to remove content from the platform. The Tweet read: "Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge", with a link to a tweet from Twitter's Government Affairs account. The judge in question even threatened to arrest a Twitter representative in Brazil. The Brazilian Supreme Court has even gone after Starlink, since it's another company that Musk owns, saying that Starlink should be responsible for the fines against Twitter.
Information in this section sourced from article by Mashable.
What can Brazilians do?
I don't know if there's anything Brazilians can do to reverse the court decisions, but at least Brazilians can move to more social networks. I'll give the most viable alternative first, and then some others.
Bluesky: the best Twitter alternative for most people
Bluesky (bsky.social) is probably the Twitter alternative that most Brazilians (and even people who aren't from Brazil) should consider. It's structure is very similar to Twitter, being able to like/repost content, and include images/GIFs.
Missing features include
polls
videos (although you could share video on another website and put the link in a Bluesky post)
schedule posting
geo-tagging
If you have a Bluesky account and want to follow me there, I'm @littlebitstudios.com.
Other Web2 social networks
Before I get into Web3 social networks that people might cringe at, here are some other Web2 networks to consider.
Tumblr (tumblr.com): Tumblr is more of a blog than a social network, although it does feature a linear algorithmic feed on its homepage. Tumblr users can find me at littlebit670.tumblr.com.
SpaceHey (spacehey.com): Designed to be a recreation of MySpace, a social network from the early 2000s. It supports blog posts, friend-only bulletins (similar to Instagram's Notes), forums, and hyper-customizable profile pages. The platform recently hit 1 million users.
Meta Threads (threads.net): Twitter alternative by Meta. Not very remarkable. Supports most post types that Twitter does. You can also enable fediverse sharing, meaning your posts can be seen by Mastodon users by simply searching for @yourname@threads.net.
Mastodon (mastodon.social, joinmastodon.org): A decentralized social network powered by server federation. mastodon.social is just one server; there are other servers available that may be listed on joinmastodon.org. Supports most post types that Twitter does.
Farcaster: Onchain social with seamless onboarding
The easiest way to be onchain is to join Farcaster. You can download their app at farcaster.xyz or warpcast.com. You will need a mobile device to join Farcaster; there is no way to join on a PC. Joining Farcaster costs $5 one-time, and there may be payments in the future due to storage unit costs. FC is not just a place for cryptocurrency/NFT nerds, there is general discussion that happens there. Farcaster has similar limitations to Bluesky, although polls are supported by third-party services like WePonder using frames.
Another notable mention in the onchain social media space is the Lens Protocol; see my article about social networks to learn more.