Cloudflare's Role in Brazil's Content Blocking Incident

Cloudflare did not collaborate with Brazilian authorities; any blocking was coincidental due to IP address changes.

### Cloudflare's Position on Brazilian Authorities and Content Blocking
* 🤔 Brazilian authorities claimed that Cloudflare collaborated with them to manage the accessibility of a platform known as **X**, but Cloudflare clarifies that **no such specific cooperation occurred**.
* 📞 The analogy of IP addresses as telephone numbers was used to explain that when X switched to Cloudflare from a competitor, its associated **IP address changed**, leading to Brazil **blocking the old address**.
* 🌐 Brazil's actions were a response to the **change in IP address** and not due to any facilitation from Cloudflare or requests from X to **block content**.
* 📊 This incident was described as a **coincidence linked to Cloudflare gaining an enterprise customer**, rather than a targeted effort to **influence content availability in Brazil**.
* 🇧🇷 The transition was nationwide, and the attention received by Cloudflare regarding this issue was **unexpected for both parties involved**.
* 🚫 Cloudflare emphasized that they did not take any steps to assist Brazil in blocking content, nor did X request such actions.
* 🔄 As of now, it is reported that **access to the platform X has once again been blocked in Brazil**.

Brazilian authorities have said that Cloudflare, your company, has worked with the government to understand how they did it. Why did you work with the Brazilian authorities, and what did that look like? To be honest, I don't know what the Brazilian authorities are talking about because we didn't specifically work with them to block X or to make X available in Brazil. What I would analogize this to is everything that's on the web. At the end of the day, it has a number associated with it, which is the IP address. It's sort of like your telephone number. And you can imagine in the days before you could port your telephone number, if you switched from one cell phone provider to another cell phone provider, your number would switch. Same thing happened with X. We want to deal with them where they started using our service, stopped using a competitor of ours, and in the process, the IP address switched. Brazil was simply blocking the old IP.

address that made them temporarily available. Brazil was then able to block the new IP address, which was accessible. There was nothing that Cloudflare did to facilitate that. There is nothing that X did to make that harder on Brazil. It was simply a coincidence of us winning an enterprise customer. The timing is a coincidence though. Were they one worldwide or just in Brazil? How much was this a one-off transition? No, it was across the country. And again, you know, sometimes things are just coincidences. But in this case, obviously, I think they were surprised. We were surprised by the attention. And again, there was nothing that X asked us to do in terms of eliminating the ability for Brazil to block the content inside of Brazil. And there was nothing that we did to further facilitate the ability for Brazil to block what they were doing. And today, my understanding is that

Cloudfare had nothing to do with X getting back online in Brazil, CEO Says

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Cloudflare's Involvement with Brazilian Authorities

Cloudflare did not specifically work with Brazilian authorities to block or make X available in Brazil.

The company's involvement was coincidental, as they won an enterprise customer from a competitor, leading to a switch in IP addresses.

Brazil's blocking of the old IP address and then the new one was a coincidence, and Cloudflare did not facilitate or hinder Brazil's ability to block content.

Access has been blocked again in Brazil, impacting users and services.

The reasons for the blockage are not specified.

This recurring issue raises concerns about internet freedom and access to information in the country.