Digital marketing on an international scale has, of course, been a complicated endeavor for as long as it has been possible. But there are good reasons to believe that it is getting more complicated in the current historical moment, and that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

This blog has previously discussed the growing uncertainties of digital marketing in general, especially where social media is concerned. Ironically, at the same time as control over the internet has become more consolidated, many online audiences have become more fractured. And that has made it increasingly difficult for digital marketing agencies and their clients to make firm decisions regarding where to focus their efforts.

It’s a situation that is hard enough to deal with if you are trying to sell a product or service within a geographically limited area. It becomes more complicated if your digital marketing aims for a national reach, and more complicated still if you’re trying to take your business international. Not only does that require you to understand which platforms and which online communities are popular among your intended audience in different markets, but it also challenges you to navigate the legal complexities of those markets, and possibly cope with certain platforms being constrained or simply unavailable in some locations.

These issues were brought into the spotlight on Friday when it was reported that a Brazilian court had ordered Twitter (now officially known as X) to be blocked throughout the country over its defiance of prior orders requiring the appointment of a local legal representative. While X CEO Elon Musk is arguably more prone to defiance of some orders than other major figures in the tech sector, the fact remains that his company’s emerging ordeal stems from a type of legal demand that is only becoming more familiar with each passing year.

It remains to be seen whether Musk’s defiance will endure and whether Brazil will remain committed to its plans, but in the meantime, this is sure to leave some digital marketers scrambling who have been running social media campaigns on Brazil. They now face the challenge of deciding whether they should abandon Twitter altogether in favor of another social media platform that seems safe in the local market, or simply try to expand their campaigns while also remaining on a platform that either might come back into Brazil, or might continue to be accessed by some users.

Initially, Brazilian authorities warned that they would fine individual users who tried to evade the ban using VPNs, but this announcement was reversed after swift and widespread backlash. While that leaves the door open for continued use of the platform for some forms of digital marketing, it only further underscores the complexity of the digital environment for marketing agencies and their clients. After all, VPNs work by masking user IP addresses and making it appear as if they are in a different country than they are. As these tools become more prevalent and even necessary for some users, international digital marketing campaigns will probably need to be designed to be truly international and convey a message that will be received the same by people in every country served by a given VPN.