Reporters in Brazil using family members to report on X for Eagles-Packers game
Brazil recently enacted a nationwide ban on X, providing an unexpected obstacle for NFL reporters who are on site for the Eagles vs Packers game.
Just over a week ago, Brazil announced a nationwide ban on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. The decision came following disputes between Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in April. Moraes demanded that X remove seven right-wing accounts which had been posting misinformation regarding former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Despite complying with Turkey and India, who made similar takedown requests, Musk refused to do so for Brazil. In August, X removed its legal representatives from Brazil, saying that Moraes had threatened them with arrest if they did not comply with her requests. That led to X’s corporate offices shutting down in Brazil. In response, the Brazilian court ordered a nationwide ban on X.
That ban includes visitors to the country.
How the NFL reporters in Brazil are posting on X
The X ban extends to all visitors to Brazil, including all the NFL reporters present for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers game tonight in São Paulo, the league’s first-ever NFL game in South America. This ban was an unexpected problem for those reporters, who rely on X to deliver updates and breaking news quickly. However, many have found a way around that issue.
The Philadelphia Inquirer sent four journalists to Brazil to cover the historic game, and posted on X to clarify that it is not those reporters who are posting to the social media page, but that the information is actually being relayed back to people in Philly. The reporters will instead be posting to the social media app Threads.
This week, we have @Jeff_McLane, @EJSmith94, @ByDavidMurphy and @ReinerOlivia in Brazil covering the Eagles' opener. Due to the ban on X in the country, posts from their accounts are being relayed back here and posted on their behalves.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer (@PhillyInquirer) September 5, 2024
Another reporter for PHLY, Zach Berman, has been sending out posts and confusing fans. Later, it was cleared up - it was his wife and children posting on his behalf.
Btw, we’re controlling Zach’s twitter account while he’s in Brazil. He might miss twitter more than he misses us! pic.twitter.com/xX5vIS5PEM
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) September 4, 2024
Other reporters, like The Athletic’s Packers beat reporter Matt Schneidman, have decided to forego X and post on other social media platforms instead - in his case, Instagram.
It’s been real, Twitter.
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) September 5, 2024
I’ll post scenes from tomorrow’s practice, Friday’s game and elsewhere in Brazil on my Instagram story (@mattschneidman).
As for written content and updates, The Athletic will have a live blog starting tomorrow morning where you can find all that. pic.twitter.com/6gH8B4xxBe
And in case you thought, “why not just use a VPN?” Well, that is prohibited in Brazil as well, with a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for those who are caught using a VPN to access X. Since the ban was put in place, more than two million Brazilians have dropped X with some switching to Threads, and more than one million have started using Bluesky instead, the app created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, although they won’t find much from the NFL there. The league does not have an official Bluesky account.
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