a large-scale social media withdrawal experiment? brazilian netizens used to spend 3.5 hours a day on social media, but now some find it difficult to adapt and some no longer care
2024-09-25
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▲the supreme court of brazil. photo by lucio tavora, xinhua news agency
on august 30, local time, the brazilian supreme court ruled to suspend the services of social media platform x (formerly twitter) in the country, requiring the brazilian national telecommunications agency to suspend the operation of the social media platform in brazil within 24 hours. this south american country with a population of over 200 million was once the largest user market for x outside the united states.
recently, musk, the world's richest man and owner of x platform, suddenly made a 180-degree turn and gave up the confrontation with the brazilian supreme court. the lawyer of x company recently stated that x platform has complied with the relevant orders of the brazilian supreme court and hopes that the court will lift the blockade of its website.
although musk's concession makes it possible for x platform to return to the brazilian market, the "offline" life in the past month has also made brazilian netizens feel emotional: some complained that they "felt empty" after x platform was offline, and some said that the platform is no longer as important in brazilian public life as before...
musk "gave up resistance"
x platform hopes to return to the brazilian market
according to a statement from the legal team of company x, the company has completed a series of actions required by the brazilian supreme court, including the banning of a number of accounts that violated brazilian law and spread false political information about the election. in addition, company x has appointed a legal representative in brazil and has paid the relevant fines for not complying with the order of the brazilian supreme court. these concessions are things that musk had previously "sworn never to do", which means that musk, the actual controller of company x, has "given up resistance."
on september 21, the brazilian supreme court confirmed company x’s statement in a document, but stated that the company had not submitted the proper documents. the brazilian supreme court gave company x more time to complete the documents.
the brazilian supreme court said on august 28 that company x had 24 hours to appoint a legal representative for its operations in brazil or face "suspension of activities", but musk refused.
on august 30, the brazilian supreme court ordered the immediate suspension of x platform operations in the country. justice de morais also required x platform to pay the outstanding fines for not complying with brazilian law and not deleting accounts that the court had determined to be spreading false information.
brush for 3 and a half hours every day
brazilian internet celebrity”says it's hard to leave x
joão archigas, a researcher at the technological and social institute in rio de janeiro, said, "brazil has suddenly entered a large social experiment of quitting social media, and it will be very interesting to observe the society in this state."
according to data provided by kepios, a consulting firm specializing in digital technology research, brazilian netizens spend an average of 3 hours and 37 minutes on social media every day, making them "heavy users" of smartphones compared to surrounding areas, and platform x is the most commonly used social networking site by brazilians.
magaghers, 34, is a well-known brazilian lawyer and public relations representative. she is also a well-known blogger with more than 400,000 followers on the x platform. magaghers said that the sudden closure of the x platform in brazil had a great impact on her professional activities and personal life, leaving her at a loss. "the sudden closure of x has had a significant impact on many brazilian influencers who promote products or activities online, and the news of the activities i follow are all published on x first. other online platforms just hype and amplify the fresh information generated on x."
cardi b, a well-known american rapper, also found that her number of interactions on the x platform had dropped in early september. she wrote: "many of my fan pages were created by brazilians! come back soon!" brazilian entertainment reporter chico said: "i don't seem to know what important events have happened in the entertainment world now."
threads, a social platform launched by zuckerberg's meta company, has become a new place for some brazilian users to "move". some old users of threads have also posted messages to "greet" new brazilian users. the number of registered users of the platform in brazil is "increasing every minute". however, chico said that the experience of using threads cannot be compared with x: "the algorithm of threads is like a buffet restaurant. the chef desperately serves me many dishes that i don't like at all."
users continue to flee
many brazilians have abandoned x platform
however, in addition to some heavy core users, a large number of brazilian netizens also said that the shutdown of the x platform did not affect their daily lives.
the development of the x platform in brazil has experienced some twists and turns: in the early days, brazil once became the largest source of twitter users outside the united states, with more than 40 million brazilians registering accounts at its peak. however, with the rise of platforms such as instagram and tiktok, the importance of the twitter platform in brazil continued to decline. after musk acquired twitter and renamed it "x", at least 2 million brazilian users cancelled their accounts due to dissatisfaction with the changes in the platform ecology.
shirley sampaio, a 56-year-old jewelry salesperson who likes to use instagram on a daily basis, said she "doesn't care" about the sudden closure of x. "if they cancel instagram, it will have a negative impact, but people don't use x much now."
brazilian technology columnist pedro said, "for 5 to 10 years, twitter was brazil's national public square, where we had most of the meaningful conversations. but then it became less interesting and less important. it used to cause a big response, but now the user base has become smaller and it is no longer that important."
red star news reporter zheng zhi
editor guo yu editor li binbin
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