Telegram no longer suspended in Brazil after court ruling
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Brazil lifts the ban on Telegram after an earlier decision to ban the country in light of its connections to criminal activity in the country.
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The icon for the instant messaging Telegram app is seen on a smartphone, February 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pennsylvania (AP)
A Brazilian judge overturned Saturday the court's decision to suspend the Telegram messaging service because the parent firm refused to give authorities the information they requested on neo-Nazis using the network.
For failing to cooperate in an investigation into neo-Nazi behavior on social networks connected to school violence, that court fined Telegram a million reais (about $198,000) each day and ordered the temporary suspension of its operations.
According to the G1 news agency, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ruled that Telegram be barred in the country. The decision was made due to Telegram's alleged reputation for refusing to cooperate with law enforcement and judicial agencies in many nations.
The federal police allegedly submitted the motion to stop the instant messaging service, telling the court that Telegram is "notorious for its non-cooperation position with judicial and police authorities in various countries."
The Federal Regional Court-2 (TRF-2) in Rio de Janeiro announced that Judge Flavio Lucas had ruled that the nationwide suspension of the app was "not reasonable" because it interferes with "the freedom of communication of thousands of people absolutely unrelated to the facts being investigated".
The judge did, however, uphold the first one million real (USD 198,000) daily penalties levied on the business.
Speaking last week in regard to a recent rash of attacks in schools, Justice Minister Flavio Dino claimed that groups with anti-Semitic names were "acting in those networks, and we know that this is at the core of violence against our children."
Alexandre de Moraes, the head of Brazil's Supreme Court, stated that Telegram had disobeyed earlier court judgments and displayed "total disdain for Brazilian justice." According to him, the messenger's work is incompatible with Brazil's constitutional structure.
In the same week as two other non-fatal school attacks, a man with a hatchet killed four children at their school, ages four to seven.
A 13-year-old kid attacked a teacher with a knife at a Sao Paulo school last month, killing the instructor in the process.
Moreover, a 16-year-old gunman also attacked two schools in Aracruz, in the state of Espirito Santo's southeast, in November of last year, killing four people and injuring more than ten others.
The teen reportedly connected with anti-Semitic organizations on Telegram, according to the G1 news portal.
