Will it be safe to use Tor browser when VPNs are banned? What advice can you give to Brazilians to stay safe?
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You are probably referring to the fight between Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk over X. I see no reason why Tor could be a problem in Brasil. There is no way for anyone to know where you are going and for X to know where you are from using Tor. Or are you saying VPNs in general will be banned?
A VPN which conforms to local laws could be made to disclose what site users are going to and from where. Even if Tor were to be served such an order there is no way it can know. The exit nodes would have to comply. Can you just see the number of fingers that would cause around the world. 
But I’m not an expert
The Brazilian government is issuing a fine of $9,000 per day for using a virtual private network to access X as part of its crackdown on the website.
I am not in Brazil myself, but my friends are worried about it.
2024-08-31 14:55 UTC
Yes, I read that also and for the reasons I mentioned above this would not affect using Tor.
Their jurisdiction does not go outside their national borders so using a VPN based anywhere else would not be enforceable especially if there is no office in Brasil. I can see them showing the judge their finger.
With TLS encryption you don’t get to see the host name but X owns their IP block 104.244.40.0/21 and maybe more so blocking X is then easier for a VPN based in Brasil. I am not a lawyer but I think they would have to comply or pay the fine.
What about a VPN based in Switzerland like Proton? Now the judge would have to start blocking VPN IPs which could be many and everywhere. And then start blocking Tor entry points.
It can be done. The big three do it as best they can.
Interesting to see the outcome.
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Will it be safe…
Safety is relative. Everyone has their own concerns.
Safety also changes based on physical location and time.
What advice can you give to Brazilians to stay safe?
Not just those in Brazil but for anyone in a place with, um, viciously tor-unfriendly attitudes.
First time users
First time users of Tor-Project-approved software should connect to the tor network using a bridge instead of making a direct connection. Choose “Configure Connection...” after Tor Browser launches. (Then skip the next paragraph.)
Already using some tor software
If you’ve been using some tor software, depending on your concerns, you might want to move from a direct connection to using a bridge. And, depending on how concerned you are, you might want to disconnect your hardware’s network access first, to prevent an instant connection to your current guard.
Choosing a bridge
While offline adjust the Preferences/Settings. Once in the Settings choose “Connection” in the sidebar, and in the main window scroll down to Bridges. Follow the instructions or click the “Learn more” link to load built-in help.
At some point you will need to go online.
Misc Onions & Stats
There’s a cool onion site checker, which includes news organizations, even x/twitter. However, for a long time x/twitter has not updated their TLS certificate, so, using their onion site is currently a non-starter.