There’s no X in Brazil. Celebrity fandom worldwide is in disarray

Associated Press

It was a rapture and a revelation all at the same time.

En masse, celebrity stan accounts posted tearful farewells over the weekend as X was suspended in Brazil amid a showdown between Elon Musk and a Supreme Court justice. Many of their hundreds of thousands of followers learned only then that their favorite celebrity’s most dedicated English-language fan accounts had actually been run by Brazilians.

It shouldn’t have necessarily been a surprise — “Come to Brazil” is a stalwart meme. Brazil’s CCXP bills itself as the Americas’ largest comic-con, drawing A-list Hollywood talent. The stars of the long-ended show “Everybody Hates Chris” are 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.

“I came to realize how strong our digital power is in this last minute, because we tweet in English so people don’t know that we are Brazilians. But we are a lot, we are everywhere,” said Aianne Amado, a University of Sao Paulo doctoral candidate who studies Brazilian fandoms. “I think that we will be missed and it’s not going to be the same network.”

Meet the fans

Paola Strabelli didn’t care much for reading. A few years ago, though, she saw “Vita and Virginia” and became entranced — not with its lead actors, but with Virginia Woolf herself.

She started to read Woolf voraciously, and created @botvirginia to share Woolf’s quotes, amassing 115,000 followers.

Strabelli, 26, told The Associated Press that, growing up, she didn’t have many friends. In some ways, she said, her life began with online fandom — first, through Katy Perry and the show “Once Upon A Time,” and then Woolf. Online friendships translated into real life, and, for a year, she dated a girl she met through their shared passion.

The law student behind @agron_updates, dedicated to “Glee” actor Dianna Agron, never reckoned on disclosing her nationality. The 32-year-old from Brazil’s center-west region requested anonymity for privacy, as she pursues government jobs. She was drawn to Agron because she thought the actor seemed “so kind.” By 2016, annoyed with how Agron’s fan accounts operated — cropping out boyfriends, for example — she co-founded an X account that grew to more than 7,600 followers.

All along, she’s been careful to maintain a separation between her own feelings and the account’s.

“Sometimes I will watch a movie and I think it’s terrible, but I’ll go on the account and say, ‘Guys, it’s amazing,’” she said. “I wasn’t hoping to have to come out as a Brazilian.”

Then there’s @21metgala, run by two 18-year-old college students, Maria and Tamara. In three years, it’s 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.

“Most of our followers didn’t know we were Brazilian, so it was a huge shock when we announced it,” she wrote. Even Cardi B responded with distraught emojis.

Amado attributed Brazil’s fervor for foreign entertainment to both its colonial history and the country’s sheer diversity, noting its high consumption of Japanese otaku culture and its large population of Japanese descent.

Fandom is hard work

Fandom can often be derided with a condescension that belies the sheer amount of work that goes into maintaining these accounts.

“At first, I thought that fans were crazy. And, like, psychologically, I don’t know, sick? … And now, I’ve come to see that it’s all about passion and effect and it’s a very human behavior. Everybody’s interested in something,” be it cooking or canines, Amado said. “But for some reason, when you’re interested in something in pop culture, people tend to think that is less than.”

An academic from Belo Horizonte, Samira Spolidorio has studied fansubbing — 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 “passionate.” They’re also looking for a sense of belonging, she said.

Despite being grassroots efforts that drew no profit, fansubbing groups had “very strict rules” requiring volunteers to work overnight, Spolidorio said. A 40-minute episode required at least four people to subtitle and two to review — there were style guides, too.

That commitment can exact a price. Before X’s suspension, @agron_updates had an expiration date of Dec. 31. Running it was affecting its administrator’s entire life, even leading to a breakup.

“One of the reasons was I was always on the phone, always checking for content,” she told the AP. “It’s kind of like a drug, it seizes something in your brain. You want to be first to post it.”

“I’ve been unemployed for the past two years, and I have to study, I have to do something with my life,” she added. “There’s no way I can keep my life revolving around keeping a Twitter account for someone who — I love Dianna, but she doesn’t work.”

What’s next

In the past week, X alternative Bluesky has 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.

Brazilians using virtual private networks to bypass the suspension face steep fines, but @21metgala has been able to continue posting sporadically.

“Some Wi-Fi providers haven’t fully blocked access yet, but it’s very unstable,” Maria wrote Monday. While they are on other platforms, @21metgala will certainly be back if X is unsuspended.

“Twitter was faster for posting photos, and Bluesky doesn’t allow video posts yet, which is a bit of a challenge. We’re not huge fans of Instagram because accounts can be easily taken down due to copyright issues,” she wrote. (Video is coming to Bluesky, Graber says, “definitely sooner than months.”)

For CCXP, the suspension doesn’t pose much of a threat to the convention’s success. In a statement, vice president for content Beto Fabri said they’d already “focused on valuing and building relationships with the geek community” on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and their own platforms.

Not everyone plans to pivot. Despite having nearly 16,000 followers at @GALITZINEFOX, 23-year-old Alana Souza is relatively new to stanning actor Nicholas Galitzine. The advertising student from Recife became devoted after watching “Red, White & Royal Blue” last year. Given the amount of time she’s spent on X, she’s doesn’t want to start over.

“If X doesn’t get unsuspended in Brazil then that’s gonna be the end of it,” she wrote in an email, later adding that her absence “gives me the feeling of being disconnected from what’s going on in the world.”

Since Musk bought X, Strabelli has found it less fun. But it still had a cachet that, for her, can’t be replicated. While she appreciates Instagram for letting her start over — she can reuse quotes instead of scouring the internet for lesser-known scraps of Woolf’s writing — she finds it impersonal. There are many things she will miss about X, including her “gringo friends that are tweeting.”

“I felt famous and wanted,” she said. “And when I saw the replies, I don’t know, I’m not going to lie, this ego bump was really nice.”

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Sen reported from New York. Associated Press journalist David Biller contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.