NFL Season Begins in Brazil, X Ban for Posts

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers will meet tonight for their season opener, marking a distinct start to this year’s NFL season

As part of the NFL’s plan to grow into new foreign markets, the two football teams went to Brazil to play the first regular season NFL game ever in South America.

People who went to São Paolo to cover sports or watch football have encountered an unexpected problem this weekend: X is now illegal in Brazil.

That app has changed a lot since Elon Musk bought it in 2022. It used to be called Twitter. However, one thing that hasn’t changed is how important it is to sports fans.

Unlike Instagram, TikTok, and other popular social media apps, microblogging is a great way to respond quickly to big plays, the judge calls, and coach decisions in real-time.

The same goes for sports reporters, who often post reports on X during games. Because these reporters are on the ground and can talk to team officials directly, sports fans like their stories during big games.

The Philadelphia Inquirer sent four sports reporters to Brazil to cover the game. To be safe, they put up a message on X to clarify that these reporters are not breaking Brazilian laws.

“Because X is banned in the country, posts from their accounts are being sent back here and made on their behalf,” the newspaper wrote about X.

Also, while Zach is in Brazil, we’re in charge of his Twitter account. He may have missed Twitter more than we did!
pic.twitter.com/xX5vIS5PEM

— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) September 4, 2024

It’s been hard for fans to understand why PHLY reporter Zach Berman has been tweeting from Brazil. Following this, his wife and kids shared a picture showing they were posting.

Matt Schneidman, who covers the Green Bay Packers for The Athletic, has not used X and instead sends his fans to his Instagram.

People disagree with the choice to ban X in Brazil. The fight started in April when Alexandre de Moraes, a judge on the Brazilian Supreme Court, asked X to delete seven accounts on the right that spread false information in support of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

However, Musk did not take down the posts, even though he had done so before when governments in India and Turkey asked him to do the same.

By August, X said that Moraes had told the company’s lawyer in Brazil that they would be arrested if X didn’t follow through with the removal requests. So, X stopped doing business in Brazil.

In response, a court in Brazil banned X right away across the whole country.

There are a lot of Brazilians in online fandoms that aren’t related to sports. For example, some of the biggest fan accounts on X are for singers like Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, and Chappell Roan.

With the Eagles and Packers about to play in São Paulo, it’s even more apparent how the ban has changed culture.