Judge Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) ordered Telegram this Wednesday to publicly correct a message sent the day before to millions of people in which he criticizes a bill pending in Congress aimed at regulating social media.
The message, authored by the Telegram app itself, says that if the Brazilian parliament approves the project, a new censorship will be introduced in Brazil that will put an end to freedom of expression.
In its decision, the magistrate is threatening to suspend Telegram in Brazil for an initial period of 72 hours and impose a fine of approximately €92,500 for every hour the platform needs to comply with the decision.
Alexandre de Moraes is demanding that Telegram send the same millions of Brazilians who received the fake message a new message, admitting that he lied, and even write a text that the app should send.
“By ruling by the Federal Supreme Court, Telegram reports: Telegram’s previous post characterized egregious and illegal disinformation against the National Congress, the judiciary, the rule of law, and Brazilian democracy because it fraudulently misrepresented discussion and debate on the regulation of social media providers and private messaging services. (draft law 2630), in an attempt to induce and incite users to coerce parliamentarians,” the text determined by the justice of the peace says, and that Telegram is obliged to send all its users to Brazil, in addition to removing the previous one.
Platforms such as Telegram, Google and others have put very strong pressure on the Brazilian Congress and public opinion in the country to try to prevent the approval of a project that intends to regulate social networks in Brazil and hold their leaders accountable in case of excesses. pressure that forced the vote to be postponed last week’s measure.
Telegram was even banned two weeks ago for refusing to remove content that incites hatred and mass killings in schools, which the app considers copying radical far-right statements, freedom of speech.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This Correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal
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