Brazil has fined Elon Musk’s companies after some users in the country were briefly able to access social media platform X despite a ban imposed last month.

Brazilian users flocked to the site on Wednesday after X updated how its servers are accessed in the country.

The company said the restoration of the platform was unintentional. Hours later, access was blocked again.

On Thursday, a Brazilian court fined the company five million reais ($920,000; £695,000) for violating the ban.

The company switched its service back to its previous provider on Thursday afternoon, according to the Internet provider association ABRINT, which noticed the change during tests to block the new servers.

X and Cloudflare have not yet confirmed the move, but ABRINT said X’s public DNS (domain name system) indicates a return.

Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes had accused the company of playing a “trick” by allowing some users to regain access.

He then fined X and Mr Musk’s other company, the internet satellite firm Starlink, over $920,000 (£695,000) for every day X operates in Brazil.

However, it is unclear whether the court can force payment of the fine or whether it will only demand payment now that service has been restored on the previous servers.

Mr Musk’s companies have ignored Brazilian court orders in the past, including the order by Judge de Moraes that led to the ban on the social media site in the first place in August.

Explaining the sudden access for some users on Wednesday, X said a change in network provider had “led to an unintended and temporary restoration of service for Brazilian users.”

“While we anticipate that the platform will soon be unavailable in Brazil, we continue to work with the Brazilian government to facilitate an early return for the Brazilian population,” an X spokesperson said in a statement.

The company’s statement surprised some observers.

“Everything that happened throughout the day led us to believe it was intentional,” said Basílio Rodriguez Pérez, a consultant to ABRINT, the country’s leading Internet service provider (ISP) trade group.

ABRINT said X had moved to servers hosted by Cloudflare and the site appeared to use dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that were constantly changing, suggesting to him that the change in access for Brazilian users was intentional.

In contrast, the previous system was based on specific IP addresses that could be more easily blocked.

Mr. Rodriguez Pérez, consultant to ABRINT, said these dynamic IP addresses could also be linked to critical services in Brazil.

“Many of these IP addresses are shared with other legitimate services such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP address without affecting other services.”

This includes the PIX service, which millions of Brazilians rely on for digital payments.

Despite the change, some experts said Cloudflare is well positioned to help Brazil enforce the ban.

“In fact, I believe the ban would be even more effective if Cloudflare really cooperated with the government,” said Felipe Autran, a constitutional lawyer in Brasilia, the country’s capital.

“I think they will because they are such a big supplier to many Brazilian companies and also to the government.”

Brazil is considered one of the largest markets for Musk’s social network.

The platform was banned in the country last month after failing to meet a court deadline to appoint a new legal representative in the country.

It was the most significant development in a dispute between Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Mr Musk that began in April when the judge ordered the blocking of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.

Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink – a subsidiary of spacecraft maker SpaceX – had once said it would allow its customers in Brazil to sign up to X. But Starlink backed out when the country’s telecommunications regulator threatened to revoke its license to operate in Brazil.

Observers in Brazil expressed frustration over the strained relationship with both X and the Brazilian government.

“It’s a chess game and we are the pieces on the board,” said Pérez. “But it’s not us who are playing. It’s the government and X who are playing.”