It was a rapture and a revelation all at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
En masse, celebrity stan accounts posted tearful farewells over the weekend\u00a0as X was suspended in Brazil\u00a0amid a showdown\u00a0between Elon Musk and a Supreme Court justice.\u00a0Many of their hundreds of thousands of followers learned only then that their favorite celebrity\u2019s most dedicated English-language fan accounts had actually been\u00a0run by Brazilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It shouldn\u2019t have necessarily been a surprise \u2014 \u201cCome to Brazil\u201d is a stalwart meme. Brazil\u2019s CCXP bills itself as the Americas\u2019 largest comic-con, drawing A-list Hollywood talent. The\u00a0stars of the long-ended show \u201cEverybody Hates Chris\u201d\u00a0are beloved. Brazil does fandom like no other, the avalanche of goodbyes unearthing a wide array of accounts for Taylor Swift, C-list celebrities and the long-dead alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI came to realize how strong our digital power is in this last minute, because we tweet in English so people don\u2019t know that we are Brazilians. But we are a lot, we are everywhere,\u201d said Aianne Amado, a University of Sao Paulo doctoral candidate who studies Brazilian fandoms. \u201cI think that we will be missed and it\u2019s not going to be the same network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paola Strabelli didn\u2019t care much for reading. A few years ago, though, she saw \u201cVita and Virginia\u201d and became entranced \u2014 not with its lead actors, but with\u00a0Virginia Woolf\u00a0herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She started to read Woolf voraciously, and created @botvirginia to share Woolf\u2019s quotes, amassing 115,000 followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strabelli, 26, told The Associated Press that, growing up, she didn\u2019t have many friends. In some ways, she said, her life began with online fandom \u2014 first, through\u00a0Katy Perry\u00a0and the show\u00a0\u201cOnce Upon A Time,\u201d\u00a0and then Woolf. Online friendships translated into real life, and, for a year, she dated a girl she met through their shared passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law student behind @agron_updates, dedicated to\u00a0\u201cGlee\u201d actor Dianna Agron,\u00a0never reckoned on disclosing her nationality. The 32-year-old from Brazil\u2019s center-west region requested anonymity for privacy, as she pursues government jobs. She was drawn to Agron because she thought the actor seemed \u201cso kind.\u201d By 2016, annoyed with how Agron\u2019s fan accounts operated \u2014 cropping out boyfriends, for example \u2014 she co-founded an X account that grew to more than 7,600 followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All along, she\u2019s been careful to maintain a separation between her own feelings and the account\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes I will watch a movie and I think it\u2019s terrible, but I\u2019ll go on the account and say, \u2018Guys, it\u2019s amazing,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t hoping to have to come out as a Brazilian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there\u2019s @21metgala, run by two 18-year-old college students, Maria and Tamara.\u00a0In three years,\u00a0it\u2019s gained more than 175,000 followers and, unlike many stan accounts, covers general celebrity news (though they have a soft spot for Rihanna). Maria, who cited privacy in not wanting to publish her surname, said via WhatsApp that she was taken aback by the response to their departure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost of our followers didn\u2019t know we were Brazilian, so it was a huge shock when we announced it,\u201d she wrote. Even Cardi B\u00a0responded\u00a0with distraught emojis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amado attributed Brazil\u2019s fervor for foreign entertainment to\u00a0both its colonial history\u00a0and the\u00a0country\u2019s sheer diversity, noting its high consumption of Japanese otaku culture and its large population of Japanese descent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fandom can often be derided with a condescension that belies the\u00a0sheer amount of work\u00a0that goes into maintaining these accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt first, I thought that fans were crazy. And, like, psychologically, I don\u2019t know, sick? … And now, I\u2019ve come to see that it\u2019s all about passion and effect and it\u2019s a very human behavior. Everybody\u2019s interested in something,\u201d be it cooking or canines, Amado said. \u201cBut for some reason, when you\u2019re interested in something in pop culture, people tend to think that is less than.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An academic from Belo Horizonte, Samira Spolidorio has studied fansubbing \u2014 where devoted viewers come together to subtitle. She has a simple theory for why Brazilians are such engines of fandom, using a word that came up in interview after interview: Brazilians are just \u201cpassionate.\u201d They\u2019re also looking for a sense of belonging, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite being grassroots efforts that drew no profit, fansubbing groups had \u201cvery strict rules\u201d requiring volunteers to work overnight, Spolidorio said. A 40-minute episode required at least four people to subtitle and two to review \u2014 there were style guides, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That commitment can exact a price. Before X\u2019s suspension, @agron_updates had an expiration date of Dec. 31. Running it was affecting its administrator\u2019s entire life, even leading to a breakup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the reasons was I was always on the phone, always checking for content,\u201d she told the AP. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a drug, it seizes something in your brain. You want to be first to post it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been unemployed for the past two years, and I have to study, I have to do something with my life,\u201d she added. \u201cThere\u2019s no way I can keep my life revolving around keeping a Twitter account for someone who \u2014 I love Dianna, but she doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past week,\u00a0X alternative Bluesky\u00a0has boosted its base by one-third, adding 2 million users, CEO Jay Graber told the AP. Around 90% are Brazilian and most activity is in Portuguese, she said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazilians using virtual private networks to bypass the suspension\u00a0face steep fines,\u00a0but @21metgala has been able to continue posting sporadically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome Wi-Fi providers haven\u2019t fully blocked access yet, but it\u2019s very unstable,\u201d Maria wrote Monday. While they are on other platforms, @21metgala will certainly be back if X is unsuspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTwitter was faster for posting photos, and Bluesky doesn\u2019t allow video posts yet, which is a bit of a challenge. We\u2019re not huge fans of Instagram because accounts can be easily taken down due to copyright issues,\u201d she wrote. (Video is coming to Bluesky, Graber says, \u201cdefinitely sooner than months.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For CCXP, the suspension doesn\u2019t pose much of a threat to the convention\u2019s success. In a statement, vice president for content Beto Fabri said they\u2019d already \u201cfocused on valuing and building relationships with the geek community\u201d on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and their own platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not everyone plans to pivot. Despite having nearly 16,000 followers at @GALITZINEFOX, 23-year-old Alana Souza is relatively new to stanning actor\u00a0Nicholas Galitzine.\u00a0The advertising student from Recife became devoted after watching\u00a0\u201cRed, White & Royal Blue\u201d\u00a0last year. Given the amount of time she\u2019s spent on X, she\u2019s doesn\u2019t want to start over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf X doesn\u2019t get unsuspended in Brazil then that\u2019s gonna be the end of it,\u201d she wrote in an email, later adding that her absence \u201cgives me the feeling of being disconnected from what\u2019s going on in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Musk bought X, Strabelli has found it less fun. But it still had a cachet that, for her, can\u2019t be replicated. While she appreciates Instagram for letting her start over \u2014 she can reuse quotes instead of scouring the internet for lesser-known scraps of Woolf\u2019s writing \u2014 she finds it impersonal. There are many things she will miss about X, including her \u201cgringo friends that are tweeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI felt famous and wanted,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd when I saw the replies, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not going to lie, this ego bump was really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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