Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton are Newcastle United’s popular Brazilian duo
Newcastle United duo Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton will be unable to access Twitter when in Brazil.
That is after the South American nation upheld a supreme court judge’s decision to outlaw the social media app in the country. The platform, rebranded as X in 2023, was used by one-tenth of Brazil’s 200 million population.
Alexandre de Moraes, the judge, accused X of allowing misinformation to spread and many accounts of former president Jair Bolsonaro must be blocked while under investigation. Anyone caught using VPNs – software that allows internet users to access sites from different countries – could be fined up to R$50,000 (£6,700).
X closed its offices in Brazil last month and has been threatened with fines should they fail to suspend suggested accounts. Moraes also placed liability on X if any banned handles are reactivated.
On Friday, Brazil seized $3million from X and Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX. Musk – the world’s richest man worth a reported $243.7 billion – has furiously retaliated to the decision, labelling Moraes as “Brazil’s Darth Vader” for curtailing free speech.
X, formerly Twitter, has been a popular tool for footballers to interact with supporters since its boom in the early 2010s. Controversies and some of the sport’s key talking points have arisen due to the app – but positives include direct communication with fans.
Newcastle have two Brazilian stars, Guimaraes and Joelinton, in their ranks. The latter is not on the platform but Guimaraes boasts 314,000 followers on the platform.
As it stands, he will not be allowed to use X while in his home country. Guimaraes last posted on September 1 following the Magpies 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
