Brazil Temporarily Suspends Telegram for Not Complying on Order Against Neo-Nazi Groups

Brazil's far-right has long used messaging app Telegram in its activities. The app had a key role in planning the January 8 and was even used by Neo-Nazis. Now, a judge has suspended the app's use.

Brazil's Federal Police requested the social media platform to provide all information they had on neo-Nazi chat groups as part of a push against a rise in school violence in the country.

The app did not comply, with the judge ruling that the app should suspend its operations in Brazil temporarily, according to the Associated Press.

However, that is not all that Telegram is facing, as the judge also increased the daily fine for non-compliance to 1 million reais (about $200,000). It was previously set at 100,000 reais.

While Telegram did hand over some of the data to Brazilian authorities, it did not give them everything they requested, including the phone numbers of the neo-Nazi channel's administrators.

Neo-Nazi Propaganda Being Spread via Telegram Chat Groups in Brazil

In November 2022, a teenager in Espirito Santo, Aracuz went on a school shooting, killing four people and injuring 13 others while wearing a Nazi swastika. Investigators found that the boy had interacted with one of the Neo-Nazi channels being investigated.

The channel in question had videos of violent deaths, tutorials on how to stage attacks, and how to manufacture homemade explosives. According to Brazilian Report, as a neo-Nazi channel, it also has copious amounts of Nazi propaganda.

Social media has largely been blamed for the increase in school shootings in Brazil, with President Lula's government trying to regulate social media platforms such as Telegram. The president recently met with ministers, Supreme Court Justices, governors, and mayors with the goal of preventing more school violence, as well as finding ways to regulate social media.

Telegram has often presented itself as a messaging app focused on speed and privacy. It claims that its special secret chats use end-to-end encryption that is not stored on its servers. This makes it more difficult to track the activities of these right-wing groups that may have influenced a few of Brazil's most recent school shootings.

Brazil Supreme Court Has Previously Suspended Telegram

Telegram had long been used in Brazil to spread fake news, particularly about the Brazilian elections. This was also where many of the pro-Bolsonaro rioters planned their January 8 coup earlier this year.

Because of its history of helping spread misinformation, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension of the app last year, according to Reuters. Much like this latest suspension, this previous one was a result of the app's noncompliance with the country's laws, as well as its repeated refusal to adhere to judicial orders.

This led the app's operations in the country to be temporarily frozen, with Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov apologizing for his company's "negligence."

However, the Supreme Court's decision to suspend the app also led to questions about whether it curtailed freedom of speech.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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