When is it okay to block access to the internet?

The absurd clash of egos between Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk, which has seen X blocked in the South American country, only for the social network to be made available thanks to using Cloudflare’s servers, raises the question as to whether it is a good idea for governments or the judiciary to be able to prevent people from accessing online services.

X says the restoration of service in Brazil is “involuntary”, but the move clearly represents a serious challenge to the authority of the judge in question. Furthermore, Musk has widened the conflict by involving Cloudflare, which provides services to almost 20% of the internet. Cloudflare’s CEO kicked neo-Nazi website The Stormer off its services in 2017, saying: “I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick someone off the Internet, this is a power nobody should have.” The Brazilian judiciary will now presumably ask Cloudflare to cooperate in blocking X. If it does not cooperate, it could also find itself penalized, a move that would harm a great many online businesses in Brazil.

I do not intend to discuss the laws of a country or its sovereignty, but the question of whether a government or the courts have the right block online access is extremely complex, and depends on several factors related to freedom of expression, national security, privacy, human…