Facepalm: On Friday, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension of Telegram for failing to respond to communications from Brazilian courts and law enforcement officers. Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, quickly apologized, saying his company missed the court’s messages because they checked the wrong email address.
Popular with far-right groups in multiple countries, Telegram is the platform of choice for President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters. Alternatives, such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, have worked closely with Brazilian courts that have tried to limit the spread of misinformation by de-platforming far-right political commentators, but Telegram has failed to do so.
Bolsonaro has more than a million followers on the messaging platform and his allies say the ban is politically motivated. Local media report that Bolsonaro supporters are sharing guides for accessing Telegram with VPNs.
Justice de Moraes gave Apple and Google five days to remove the app from their stores. Similarly, Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel has given the country’s ISPs five days to block access to Telegram’s services. Meanwhile, Telegram has begged the courts to suspend the suspension so it can appoint a legal representative in the country.
In his order, De Moraes noted that it was unusual and useless that Telegram had not yet appointed anyone. According to Durov, the courts tried to contact Telegram via their public email, which they said they were not aware of. If it paid its fines, appeared before the Supreme Court and cooperated with the police, De Moraes said the suspension would be lifted.
As of publication, Telegram is still accessible. The suspension can be postponed or lifted before it is implemented.
Image credit: Adem AY
This post Telegram is banned in Brazil because it didn’t check his email
was original published at “https://www.techspot.com/news/93846-telegram-banned-brazil-because-didnt-check-email.html”