Telegram withdraws message about “censorship” in Brazil after threat from judge

Telegram withdrew this Wednesday, as ordered by the court on pain of suspending the application, a message to its users in Brazil in which he claimed that a bill to regulate the platforms would give the government “censorship” power.

Telegram had sent a message to its users on Tuesday, in which it attacked an initiative in Congress that seeks to combat misinformation in the social networkswarning that “Brazil is close to passing a law that will end freedom of expression.”

According to the statement, the bill “gives the government powers of censorship without prior judicial supervision” and for this reason, it is “one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation contemplated in Brazil“.

Federal Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes assured that this message from Telegram “represents flagrant and illegal misinformation,” and ordered the courier company to remove it within “one hour.”

The magistrate determined the suspension of application services for 72 hours and a fine in case of non-compliance.

Shortly after Telegram He withdrew the original message and complied to the letter of Moraes’ decision, which had also determined that Telegram published a new one admitting that the company acted “fraudulently.”

The message “distorted the discussion and debates on the regulation of providers of social networks and private messaging services, by trying to induce and incite users to coerce parliamentarians,” he published.

In your message, Telegram He called on Internet users to talk to the deputies to get involved against the bill.

The decision was celebrated by the government of the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvain power since January.

“It is an important step to set regulatory limits on these companies. The digital Wild West is incompatible with the Constitution,” Justice Minister Flavio Dino tweeted.

The complaint of Telegram joined the publications of Google a week ago on his site, warning that the legislation could “worse” the internet and “increase confusion about what is true or false in Brazil.”

Regulation of social networks

This bill was introduced three years ago as an effort to deal with the deluge of misinformation online and was approved by the Senate.

But it gained notoriety recently, after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia on January 8, allegedly spurred on by disinformation on the internet, which claimed that Lula had fraudulently defeated the far-right in the polls in October 2022.

After successive modifications when processing by the Chamber of Deputiesthe project has not yet been submitted to a vote due to a lack of agreement among legislators, who want to prevent the initiative from sinking.

Inspired by the Digital Services Law Approved in the European Union, the latest version of the project requires platforms to increase their transparency and adopt mechanisms to combat illegal content, especially those that violate the democratic rule of law, the rights of children and adolescents, and those that promote racism or terrorism.

Public calls to regulate the networks, backed by the government, also grew after a series of attacks on schools in Brazil.

On April 27, the court already ordered the suspension of Telegram for failing to provide the authorities with requested data on neo-Nazi groups that allegedly operate on the platform, within the framework of an investigation related to violence in schools.

Two days later, the ruling was reversed by a second instance judge, who found the decision unreasonable.

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