A judge of Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the nationwide shutdown of messaging app Telegram, arguing that it failed to cooperate with authorities. The move is a blow to President Jair Bolsonaro, who has more than 1 million followers on the platform and defends it as an important tool for his bid for re-election in October. Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in its ruling that Telegram repeatedly ignored requests from Brazilian authorities, including police requests to block records and provide information related to blogger Allan dos Santos, an ally of Bolsonaro. accused of spreading lies.
Justice added that Telegram Unlike their competitors, also do not name a legal representation in Brazil.
Many Bolsonaro supporters have switched to Telegram since the messaging app’s rival WhatsApp has changed the policies on message sharing. The president often accuses de Moraes and Brazil’s top court of rulings that go against free speech.
De Moraes, who is leading the investigation into Brazilian social media misinformation, issued an arrest warrant for dos Santos in October. However, the activist, a fugitive now living in the United States, remains works on Telegram.
“The Telegram platform, at every possible opportunity, failed to comply with judicial orders but completely disregarded the Brazilian judicial authorities,” de Moraes said in his ruling. He added that the proposal to close the app came from the federal police.
Dos Santos said de Moraes’ decisions were “based solely on his will”.
“At some point he will have to stop or be stopped,” the blogger told Jovem Pan, a Bolsonaro live radio and TV channel that broadcasts weekly. “I do not believe the Brazilian people will accept these atrocities.”
Justice said in its ruling that “the complete and complete suspension of Telegram’s activities in Brazil will remain in place until the previously issued judicial decisions are implemented.”
De Moraes gave Apple, Google and Brazilian phone service providers for 5 days to block Telegram from their platforms.
Bolsonaro and his allies have been encouraging followers to join Telegram since January 2021 – the same month that former US President Donald Trump, who inspired the Brazilian leader, was permanently suspended. from Twitter after the Capitol Hill riots.
In January, Bolsonaro was asked by supporters what he thought of the Telegram investigations.
“It is cowardly what they are trying to do with Brazil,” he replied.
One of the founders of the messaging app, Pavel Durov, said in a statement that Telegram “has a problem with emails between our telegram.org corporate addresses and the Brazilian Supreme Court. Due to this misinformation, the Court has ruled to ban Telegram for not responding.”
“I apologize to the Supreme Court of Brazil for our negligence. We could certainly get the job done better,” said Durov. “We complied with the previous court decision at the end of February and responded with a recommendation to send future takedown requests to a dedicated email address. Unfortunately, our response was inevitably lost, as the Court used the old general purpose email address in subsequent attempts to contact us. ”
Durov also asked the court to “consider, at its discretion, delaying the ruling for several days to allow us to remedy the situation by appointing a representative in Brazil and to establish a framework for responding to acute issues.” in the future like this quickly.”
Service is still available on Friday night.
In his ruling, de Moraes also mentioned Telegram’s failure to remove misleading content from the president’s page on the country’s electronic voting system.
While Bolsonaro’s Telegram page has more than 1 million followers, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who led the presidential election in October, has 48,000.
Members of the Brazilian election authority have expressed concern about Telegram’s prolonged silence amid Bolsonaro’s unfounded claims that the election will be rigged unless a printed receipt of the ballot is conducted.
The latest request from the Brazilian authorities to seek Telegram’s cooperation came on March 9, when the president of the electoral body wrote to Durov.
His predecessor also attempted to contact Telegram leaders on December 16. Brazil’s electoral authority said at the time that Durov was not found at the company’s headquarters in the United States. United Arab Emirates.
Brazilian Justice Minister Anderson Torres criticized the decision on Twitter, saying that the Bolsonaro administration would “immediately seek a solution to re-establish the people’s right to use any social media.” they like.”
One of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, called de Moraes a “tyrant” for the decision.
Fact-checking website Aos Fatos, which monitors dozens of pro-Bolsonaro social media channels, said some supporters of the Brazilian president are sharing instructions on how to set up a virtual private network (VPN) so they can can continue to use Telegram. Bolsonaro promised to continue sharing their messages on the Gettr messaging app, founded by former Trump adviser Jason Miller.
