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Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

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420 points rvz | 1 comments | 31 Aug 24 13:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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dgfitz ◴[31 Aug 24 23:11 UTC] No.41412739[source]▶
Disclaimer: indifferent at best to musk, probably more dislike than anything else, but not with vitriol.

So I read that this is all because musk refused to appoint a Brazilian citizen as an X representative, as dictated by Brazilian law. I have not verified this part.

Musk refused because the last person to fill that role had all their bank accounts frozen by the judge.

The judge also cut off payments from Brazilian citizens to starlink, something about relating star link to x. so musk said “well then starlink is free for Brazilian citizens because I don’t want to cut people off from their internet connection.” Or something like that.

Edit: blackeyedblitzar child comment of this has better information.

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viraptor ◴[01 Sep 24 05:37 UTC] No.41414574[source]▶
> well then starlink is free for Brazilian citizens because I don’t want to cut people off from their internet connection

It's only for existing customers and because they can't charge them anymore, but don't want to drop the customers just yet. It's a business continuity plan, not some altruistic gesture.

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itsoktocry ◴[01 Sep 24 13:45 UTC] No.41416926[source]▶
>It's a business continuity plan, not some altruistic gesture.

What a goofy assertion.

Yeah, the big concern for Starlink and Musk is maintaining non-paying customers.

It's not altruism either, it's political.

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1. viraptor ◴[01 Sep 24 19:18 UTC] No.41419518[source]▶
There's a cost to acquiring new customers and friction when switching providers. Overall it's going to be cheaper for starlink to eat the cost for now if they expect to resume operations than to convince the same number of customers to switch again.

It's the same reason you get offers of discounts or free periods when you try to cancel services from large companies. They care about your worth over years, not just right now.