Brazilian court bans Telegram for failing to hand over data from neo-Nazi groups

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Thu Apr 27, 2023, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

The company will be fined almost $200,000 a day until it complies with the court's orders.

Mariella Moon|@mariella_moon|April 27, 2023 6:08 AM

Telegram might soon disappear from Brazilian app stores after a federal court in the country has issued a temporary ban against the messaging service. Judge Wellington Lopes da Silva has ordered Google and Apple to remove the app from their stores and for mobile carriers to block access to it for failing to hand over complete user data from two neo-Nazi group chats. Telegram will also have to pay a fine worth almost $200,000 a day until it's able to give authorities data from the groups believed to have been used to incite attacks on schools in Brazil.

According to The New York Times, the group chats were found on the phone of a teenager accused of committing two school shootings in November, which left three dead and 13 people injured. Authorities said they saw murder tutorials, bomb-manufacturing instructions and violent videos in those group chats, in addition to Nazi content. Brazilian justice minister Flavio Dino said: "The so-called antisemitic movement is acting in these networks. And we know that this is at the base of violence against our children, our teens."

Judge da Silva explained that Telegram only handed over information on the administrator of a channel named the "Brazilian Anti-Semitic Movement." It failed to give authorities information on members of that group and any data from another channel called "Anti-Semitic Front." The service reportedly said that the groups had been deleted and that it couldn't recover any information, but that wasn't enough to justify not complying with the court's subpoena to the judge

The Brazilian Supreme Court previously banned Telegram for failing to freeze accounts spreading disinformation ahead of last year's presidential elections. However, the ban was reversed in just a couple of days, and Telegram blamed its noncompliance to lost emails.

https://www.engadget.com/brazilian-court-bans-telegram-for-failing-to-hand-over-data-from-neo-nazi-groups-100853097.html

(Short article, no more at link.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Federal Court Orders Telegram Brazil to Be Taken Down

The accusation is that the company has ignored requests for measures to combat content that advocates violence

Apr.27.2023 11:06AM

The Brazilian Federal Court has decided to take Telegram off the air in Brazil. The determination meets a request from the Federal Police in investigations regarding attacks on schools.

A daily fine of BRL 1 million was also imposed if the company did not comply with a previous order to provide data to the authorities in charge of investigations.

Telegram has ignored requests for measures to combat content that advocates violence and threats of violent acts in schools.

On Friday (21), Telegram Brazil delivered to the Federal Police data requested by Justice on neo-Nazi groups. The platform was summoned to send the data after the investigation into the attack on two schools in Aracruz (ES) identified that the 16-year-old person responsible participated in groups with anti-Semitic content.

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2023/04/federal-court-orders-telegram-brazil-to-be-taken-down.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen

(Short article, no more at link.)