A Brazilian court has ordered the suspension of Telegram in the country and increased the fine to 1 million reais per day (roughly $200,000) for the company’s refusal to provide police-requested data. Authorities have been investigating the activity of neo-Nazi groups for several months, which allegedly used the platform to incite attacks on schools.
Phone companies Vivo, Claro, Tim and Oi, as well as Google and Apple, which are responsible for the Playstore and App Store app stores, have received instructions to suspend Telegram, according to the country’s intelligence agency (PFB).
The federal police demanded that the app be suspended because Telegram failed to comply with court orders requiring the disclosure of user data from two anti-Semitic group chats. The company told authorities that the groups had been deleted and the data could not be recovered.
The groups in question may have been linked to the attack on a school in Aracruz in November 2022, which resulted in four fatalities and 11 injuries. Police believe the 16-year-old shooter was in contact with anti-Semitic groups on Telegram, which posted videos with training materials on how to make explosive devices and promoted neo-Nazi ideals.
Last year, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge issued a ban on Telegram due to the messaging app’s failure to respond to orders to remove the accounts of a prominent supporter of former president Jair Bolsonaro who allegedly spread false information.
