BUENOS AIRES, May 10. A Brazilian court ordered Telegram to delete a message critical of the authorities and send clarifications to users, otherwise the application will be blocked for 72 hours, reported the news portal G1.
«A Supreme Court Judge has ordered Telegram to delete a message sent to users on May 9th criticizing the Fake News Bill being considered by the country's Congress,» media outlets said.
The company must also send a message to users that a post critical of the authorities was «flagrant misinformation.» If the order is not followed, then the work of the application in the country will be suspended for 72 hours. In addition, the company will have to pay a fine of 500 thousand reais per hour (slightly more than 100 thousand dollars).
Earlier, Telegram said that it allows the cessation of work in Brazil if the country passes a bill to combat disinformation on social networks. In this message, published in the telegram channel Telegram Brasil, the company expressed the opinion that due to the consideration of such a bill, «democracy in Brazil is under threat.»
On April 20, the Brazilian authorities announced the opening of an administrative case against Telegram, which threatened the messenger with fines and suspension of activities in the country. The decision came after the company failed to inform the government in time of the mechanisms in place to detect and moderate illegal content, including threats of attack and hate speech. Later it was reported that Telegram provided the police with information, but not in full. After that, at the end of April, a court in Brazil ordered the suspension of Telegram. The company was fined 1 million reais (about $200,000) a day. A few days later, the suspension decision was reversed.
This is already the first confrontation between Telegram and the Brazilian authorities. So, in January, the Supreme Court of Brazil fined the messenger Pavel Durov for non-compliance with a court decision to block one of the channels previously recognized as disseminating false information. This happened after riots by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia.
In mid-March last year, a Brazilian Federal Supreme Court judge ordered that Telegram be blocked in the country because of its non-cooperation stance. Telegram founder Pavel Durov then apologized to the court and asked for time to correct the situation. /ria.ru/20230218/telegram-1852869255.html» data-title=»Telegram has become the second messenger in the world, Durov said»>