Brazil doesn’t filter the web routinely, but its courts can suspend a whole platform that defies them: WhatsApp in 2015 and 2016, Telegram in 2022 and 2023, X in 2024 and Rumble from 2025.
Every day we open 67 of the world’s biggest sites and apps from home internet connections in Brazil, and record what’s blocked, since when and how.
0 of 67 testedsites and apps with a confirmed block in Brazil
67 of 67 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Tests are requested on Claro and Vivo home connections.
Brazil’s best-known blocks come from judges, above all Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Court orders go to the telecoms regulator, Anatel, and to internet providers, and each provider carries them out on its own, so a block can start at different times and work differently from one network to the next. Freedom House rated Brazil “Partly Free” in 2025, at 65 out of 100.
The most prominent case was X. Moraes ordered it suspended on 30 August 2024, after it closed its Brazilian office and missed his deadline to name a legal representative; it went offline the next day, and a Supreme Court panel unanimously upheld the order. X came back on 8 October 2024, after naming a representative, deactivating accounts the court had targeted and paying about 28.6 million reais in fines.
WhatsApp, Telegram and Rumble have been cut off the same way. Judges blocked WhatsApp three times in 2015 and 2016 for not handing over data in criminal cases, and each block was lifted within about a day. Telegram was suspended for two days in March 2022 and three in April 2023. Rumble was suspended in February 2025 for ignoring orders to block accounts and having no legal representative in Brazil.
In June 2025 the Supreme Court made platforms liable for most illegal posts they fail to remove once notified, without waiting for a court order; defamation still needs one. And since 17 March 2026 the ECA Digital, a children’s online safety law, has required reliable age checks, not self-declaration, every time someone opens pornography or other content barred to under-18s, and lets courts suspend services that break it.
Are VPNs legal in Brazil?
Using a VPN is legal in Brazil. The best-known exception came with the 2024 X suspension, when Justice Moraes set a fine of 50,000 reais a day for anyone using a VPN to reach X; he also ordered VPN apps pulled from app stores, but suspended that part the same day.
Key dates
The ECA Digital child-safety law takes effect, requiring reliable age checks, not self-declaration, for pornography and other adult content.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspends Rumble until it obeys court orders and names a legal representative in Brazil.
X is allowed back in Brazil after naming a legal representative and paying about 28.6 million reais in fines.
Moraes orders X suspended nationwide and sets a fine of 50,000 reais a day for anyone using a VPN to reach it.
Moraes suspends Telegram for failing to cooperate with the authorities; the order is lifted two days later, after Telegram removes content and names a representative.
A São Paulo judge orders WhatsApp blocked for 48 hours over a criminal investigation; a higher court lifts the block after about 12 hours.
Get past a block
Blocked in Brazil?
A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so the blocks in Brazil no longer apply. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic.
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History
Changes in Brazil
No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.
Method
How we test
Test machines on Claro and Vivo home connections open each site’s homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
Not since October 2024. Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended X from 30 August to 8 October 2024, after it failed to name a legal representative in Brazil. It returned once it had named one, deactivated the accounts the court had targeted and paid about 28.6 million reais in fines.
Is Rumble Blocked in Brazil?
Justice Moraes suspended Rumble on 21 February 2025, until it obeys court orders and names a legal representative in Brazil. Freedom House found it still unavailable at the end of May 2025.
Can You Be Fined for Using a VPN in Brazil?
Not for using one in general. The exception came with the August 2024 suspension of X, when Justice Moraes set a fine of 50,000 reais a day for any person or company using a VPN to reach it. That block ended on 8 October 2024.
