A judge of Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the nationwide shutdown of messaging app Telegram, arguing that it did not cooperate with the authorities. The move comes as a blow to President Jair Bolsonaro, who has more than 1 million followers on the platform and defends it as a key tool for his re-election bid in October. Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in his ruling that Telegram repeatedly ignored requests from Brazilian authorities, including police requests to block profiles and provide information related to blogger Alan dos Santos accused of spreading lies. .
Justice said that Wire Unlike its competitors, Brazil has also failed to name a legal representative.
Many Bolsonaro supporters have turned to Telegram since the messaging app’s competitor WhatsApp Changed its policies on message sharing. The president has often accused de Moraes and Brazil’s top court of decisions that go against freedom of expression.
De Moraes, who headed the investigation into misinformation in Brazil’s social media, issued a warrant for the arrest of dos Santos in October. The activist, a fugitive, is now based in the United States, although has remained active on Telegram.
“The Telegram platform has, on every possible occasion, failed to comply with judicial orders in complete disregard for the Brazilian judiciary,” de Moraes said in his decision. He said that the suggestion to shut down the app came from the federal police.
Dos Santos said de Moraes’ decisions are “based solely on his will.”
“At some point he has to stop or stop,” the blogger told Jovem Pan, a radio and TV channel that airs Bolsonaro’s live broadcasts every week. “I do not believe that the Brazilian people will accept these atrocities.”
The justice said in its ruling that “there will be a complete and complete suspension of Telegram’s operations in Brazil until the judicial decisions issued earlier are made.”
De Moraes gave Apple, Google And Brazilian phone carriers give Telegram five days to block from their platform.
Bolsonaro and his allies have encouraged followers to join Telegram from January 2021 – the same month former US President Donald Trump, an inspiration to Brazil’s leader, was permanently suspended from Twitter in the wake of the riots on Capitol Hill. went.
In January, Bolsonaro was asked by supporters what he thought about the Telegram investigation.
“It’s cowardice what they are trying to do for Brazil,” he replied.
Pavel Durov, one of the founders of the messaging app, said in a statement that Telegram “had a problem with the email between our telegram.org corporate address and that of the Supreme Court of Brazil. As a result of this miscommunication, the Court rendered it unresponsive.” Decided to ban Telegram.
“I apologize to the Supreme Court of Brazil for my negligence. We certainly could have done a better job,” Durov said. “We complied with an earlier court ruling in late February and responded with a suggestion to send future removal requests to a dedicated email address. Unfortunately, our response may have been lost, as the Court used an old general-purpose email address to reach us.”
Durov asked the court “at its discretion to consider delaying its decision for a few days to allow us to address the situation by appointing a representative in Brazil and on such future pressing issues”. A roadmap can be put in place to respond quickly.”
The service remained operational till Friday evening.
In his decision, de Moraes also cited Telegram’s failure to remove misleading content from the president’s page on the country’s electronic voting system.
While Bolsonaro’s Telegram page has more than 1 million followers, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is leading the October presidential election, has 48,000.
Members of Brazil’s electoral authority have expressed concern about Telegram’s long silence amid Bolsonaro’s unfounded claims that the election will be rigged unless printed receipts for votes are installed.
The latest request from Brazilian officials seeking Telegram’s cooperation came on March 9, when the chairman of the electoral authority wrote to Durov.
His predecessor also tried to reach out to Telegram leaders on 16 December. Brazil’s electoral authority said at the time that Durov had not met at the company’s headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.
Brazil’s Justice Minister Andersen Torres criticized the decision on Twitter, saying the Bolsonaro administration would “immediately seek a solution to reestablish people’s right to use whatever social media they like.”
One of Bolsonaro’s closest aides, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, called de Moraes “a tyrant” for the decision.
Fact-checking website Aos Fatos, which tracks dozens of pro-Bolsonaro social media channels, said that many supporters of the Brazilian president were sharing tutorials on how to set up a virtual private network (VPN) so that they could continue to use Telegram. Can you Bolsonaro promised to continue sharing his messages on the messaging app Getr, which was founded by Jason Miller, a former Trump adviser.