The justice added that Telegram has additionally failed to call a authorized consultant in Brazil, not like its rivals.
A lot of Bolsonaro’s supporters have turned to Telegram for the reason that messaging app’s competitor WhatsApp modified its insurance policies on message sharing. The president has usually accused de Moraes and Brazil’s high courtroom of rulings that go towards freedom of speech.
De Moraes, who chairs a probe on misinformation in Brazilian social media, issued a warrant for dos Santos’ arrest in October. The activist, a fugitive now based mostly in the US, has remained lively on Telegram, although.
“The Telegram platform, at each doable alternative, didn’t heed judicial orders in a complete disregard for the Brazilian judiciary,” de Moraes stated in his ruling. He added the suggestion to close down the app got here from federal police.
Dos Santos stated de Moraes’ selections “are based mostly solely on his will.”
“Sooner or later he should cease or be stopped,” the blogger advised Jovem Pan, a radio and TV channel which broadcasts Bolsonaro’s stay transmissions each week. “I don’t consider the Brazilian folks will settle for these atrocities.”
The justice stated in his ruling that “the whole and full suspension of the works of Telegram in Brazil will stay till the judicial selections beforehand issued are carried out.”
De Moraes gave Apple, Google and Brazilian telephone carriers 5 days to dam Telegram from their platforms.
Bolsonaro and his allies have inspired followers to affix Telegram since January 2021 — the identical month former US President Donald Trump, an inspiration for the Brazilian chief, was completely suspended from Twitter within the wake of the riot at Capitol Hill.
In January, Bolsonaro was requested by supporters what he thought of investigations into Telegram.
“It’s cowardice what they’re attempting to do to Brazil,” he responded.
One of many messaging app’s founders, Pavel Durov, stated in a press release that Telegram “had a problem with emails going between our telegram.org company addresses and the Brazilian Supreme Court docket. On account of this miscommunication, the Court docket dominated to ban Telegram for being unresponsive.”
“I apologize to the Brazilian Supreme Court docket for our negligence. We undoubtedly might have achieved a greater job,” Durov stated. “We complied with an earlier courtroom choice in late February and responded with a suggestion to ship future takedown requests to a devoted e-mail tackle. Sadly, our response should have been misplaced, as a result of the Court docket used the previous general-purpose e-mail tackle in additional makes an attempt to succeed in us.”
Durov additionally requested the courtroom to “contemplate delaying its ruling for a number of days at its discretion to permit us to treatment the state of affairs by appointing a consultant in Brazil and establishing a framework to react to future urgent points like this in an expedited method.”
The service remained operational Friday night.
In his ruling, de Moraes additionally mentions Telegram failing to take away deceptive content material from the president’s web page on the nation’s digital voting system.
Whereas Bolsonaro’s Telegram web page has greater than 1 million followers, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the frontrunner to October’s presidential elections, has 48,000.
Members of Brazil’s electoral authority have expressed concern about Telegram’s lengthy silence amid Bolsonaro’s unfounded claims that the election can be rigged except printed receipts for votes are instituted.
The newest request from Brazilian authorities in search of Telegram’s cooperation got here on March 9, when the chairman of the electoral authority wrote to Durov.
His predecessor additionally tried to succeed in Telegram leaders on December 16. Brazil’s electoral authority stated on the time that Durov was not discovered on the firm’s headquarters within the United Arab Emirates.
Brazil’s justice minister Anderson Torres criticized the choice on Twitter, saying the Bolsonaro administration will “instantly search an answer to re-establish the folks’s proper to make use of no matter social media they like.”
Considered one of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, lawmaker Carla Zambelli, known as de Moraes “a tyrant” for the choice.
Reality-checking web site Aos Fatos, which displays dozens of pro-Bolsonaro social media channels, stated a number of supporters of the Brazilian president had been sharing tutorials on learn how to set up digital personal networks (VPNs) so they may proceed utilizing Telegram. Bolsonaro promised to maintain sharing their messages on messaging app Gettr, which was based by former Trump adviser Jason Miller.