Last month, X was blocked in Brazil after owner Elon Musk refused to moderate content on the site, resulting in a legal battle with Brazil’s Supreme Court. It was a shocking decision that reverberated across social media, but it disrupted one corner of the internet more than any other: Stan Twitter.
Stan Twitter, (or stan X), describes the many fan accounts on the site, ie. accounts dedicated to celebrities or other public figures. But why does X’s ban in Brazil have people predicting the death of Stan Twitter?
It’s because, as many X users were surprised to find out recently, a significant number of stan accounts are run by Brazilians. Following the ruling that X would be banned in Brazil, fan accounts all across the site were forced to “come out” as Brazilian, announcing their imminent departure.
Accounts affected include those dedicated to Emily Blunt, Timothée Chalamet, Léa Seydoux, numerous K-Pop artists, Virginia Woolf, and many others. “Not you too” was trending as people continued to discover just how many of these accounts are Brazilian.
Why is this the case? We can tie this statistical significance to another online phenomenon avid internet users are familiar with––the (in)famous phrase “Come to Brazil.” Brazilian fans are so well-known for commenting this phrase on performers’ posts that it’s become a meme.
Brazilian fans are always asking their faves to visit the country because artists don’t often tour Brazil, and when they do, they only play its two largest cities, and tickets tend to be very pricey. “We are so intense because we rarely get any recognition from the artists we love,” writes Brazilian K-Pop fan Giovanna Trabasso.
Various socio-political forces contributed to Brazilians becoming devoted fans of foreign pop culture, which may help explain this propensity for stanning.
Aianne Amado, a Brazilian scholar who studies fandoms, argues that part of Brazil’s pop culture appetite stems from the country’s diverse population, a mix of colonial forces, Indigenous populations, and enslaved peoples. (Brazil also has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.) Amado contends that the effects of colonization and a lack of investment in local arts “made our population view international cultures as a symbol of social capital.”
Amado also points out that Brazilian fandoms follow “strict rules” and have a strong sense of organization, a systemized approach to fandom that is the result of media industries overlooking Brazil as a potential market. It’s this combination of passion and hard work that has made Brazilian fans so dominant on sites like X. As one user noted, “brazillians were running update accounts like the navy.”
The loss of Brazilians on X will be felt by users of all types, stans or not. Stan accounts are beloved on the site not just for their commitment to their faves, but also for the oftentimes humorous way they express this commitment. Ana de Armas Updates went viral for being blocked by de Armas herself, and we’ll never forget Natalie Portman Updates posting through a depression.
Many Brazilian stan accounts bid farewell in a manner that delighted onlookers. “twitter is getting banned here so it’s lindaover guys thanks for following,” wrote a Linda Cardellini fan account. “The good thing is that we’ll probably have no updates in the meantime anyway,” wrote a fan page for the famously out of sight Dianna Agron.
But more than entertainment value, what we’re losing is part of a pop culture archive. “so many Brazilian accounts are basically unpaid archivists,” one X user noted. “this is like the burning down of the library of alexandria for fandoms,” wrote another.
Indeed, Brazilian fans engage in a huge amount of fan labor that contributes to the success of their favorite media and stars. “I think the Global North has not yet fully realised what a massive force Brazil is for media,” wrote Alonso Gurmendi, a lecturer in International Relations at The University of Oxford. “Many US shows really need their Brazilian fandoms for word of mouth promotion,” he explained.
Why it matters
The fact so many stan accounts are run by Brazilians was a revelation for many. But the real revelation here is that fan labor is the backbone of popular culture, though that labor is far from evenly distributed.
Brazilian fans do the work of not only promoting their favorite artists and content, but accessing, translating, and distributing that content as well. Can we go on without them?
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