Brazilian justice suspends use of Telegram in the country

Brazilian Justice yesterday determined the suspension of the social messaging network Telegram in the country after the app failed to provide requested information on neo-Nazi groups active on the platform, judicial sources reported.

The Federal Court of Espirito Santo ordered the suspension of Telegram in Brazil. It imposed a daily fine of 1 million reais (about US$200,000) for not sending the requested data or 5 percent of the company’s revenue in Brazil in 2022.

“The facts demonstrated by the police authority reveal Telegram’s evident purpose of not cooperating with the ongoing investigation,” assured Judge Wellington Lopes.

The judge himself had requested information from Telegram about the users of an anti-Semitic channel and a chat with the same content, which propagated neo-Nazi concepts and symbols, following investigations by the Federal Police.

The investigations began after an attack last November at a school in Aracruz, in the state of Espirito Santo, which left 4 dead. The killer participated in several anti-Semitic groups on Telegram.

The data requested by Justice included the names of the groups’ users, tax ID, profile picture, email, address, and registered bank details, among others.

However, the information transmitted by the company to Justice was considered insufficient.

“Despite the response within the deadline, the information provided does not comply with the court order.”

“It should be noted that the determination was for Telegram to forward the registration data of all channel and group chat members,” said the magistrate.

The request had only reported some data and referred only to the administrator of one of the groups.

After learning of the decision, the Brazilian Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, justified the judge’s decision and said that for him, the action of anti-Semitic groups is part of the structure of violence against children and adolescents in Brazil.

“The Federal Police requested, and the Judiciary granted that a social network that is not complying with the decisions, in this case, Telegram, has a fine of 1 million reais per day and the temporary suspension of activities, exactly because there are groups called Anti-Semitic Fronts or Anti-Semitic Movements acting on these networks and we know that this is at the base of violence against our children and adolescents.”

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