2023-04-30 04:19:08
Brazilian justice disavows on the Telegram file. A judge on Saturday overturned the country’s suspension of online messaging, which was decided last week for failing to provide authorities with data on neo-Nazi groups active on the platform, a federal court heard.
The magistrate considered that this suspension throughout the country was “unreasonable”, because it affects “the freedom of communication of thousands of people who have no connection with the facts examined”, indicated the Federal Regional Court- 2, based in Rio de Janeiro. However, he maintained the daily fine of one million reais (approximately 180,000 euros) imposed on the company by the trial judge as long as it did not provide the information requested.
Anti-Semitic organizations in the sights of judges
The federal police and the Brazilian prosecutor’s office had asked Telegram to provide them with personal data on all members of the organizations “Brazilian Antisemitic Movement” and “Antisemitic Front”, which the authorities have linked to attacks in schools in recent months.
In November, a 16-year-old boy shot dead four people and injured a dozen at two schools in the state of Espirito Santo, in southeastern Brazil. The young man “would be a member of extremist groups on Telegram, where neo-Nazi material was shared (…) with the dissemination of tutorials on murder and the manufacture of explosive devices, and videos of violent deaths”, declared the court.
Messaging several times threatened by justice
The Dubai-based company, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, for its part argued on Thursday that the requested information was “technologically unobtainable” and said it would appeal.
In March 2022, a Supreme Court judge had already threatened to block Telegram in Brazil, for “non-compliance with judicial orders”, in particular the request to suspend the account of Allan dos Santos, a blogger who supports the former President Jair Bolsonaro under investigation for disinformation.
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