Telegram removed a post from its official Brazilian channel that was critical of a bill to combat disinformation on social media in Brazil.
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A few hours ago, the post was still available in the official Telegram Brasil channel, now it has been deleted, the last message on the channel is dated May 4th.
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Earlier, Telegram said that it allows the cessation of work in Brazil if the country passes a bill to combat disinformation on social networks. In a message published on Telegram Brasil, the company expressed the opinion that due to the consideration of such a bill, “democracy in Brazil is under threat.”
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Later it became known that the Brazilian court demanded that Telegram delete the message criticizing the authorities and send clarifications to users, otherwise the application would be blocked in the country for 72 hours.
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On April 20, the Brazilian authorities announced the opening of an administrative case against Telegram, which threatened the messenger with fines and suspension of activities in the country. The decision came after the company failed to inform the government in time of the mechanisms in place to detect and moderate illegal content, including threats of attack and hate speech. Later it was reported that Telegram provided the police with information, but not in full. After that, at the end of April, a court in Brazil ordered the suspension of Telegram. The company was fined 1 million reais (about $200,000) a day. A few days later, the decision to suspend was reversed.
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This is already the first confrontation between Telegram and the Brazilian authorities. So, in January, the Supreme Court of Brazil fined the messenger Pavel Durov for non-compliance with a court decision to block one of the channels previously recognized as disseminating false information. This happened after riots by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia.
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In mid-March last year, a Brazilian Federal Supreme Court judge ordered that Telegram be blocked in the country because of its non-cooperation stance. Telegram founder Pavel Durov then apologized to the court and asked for time to correct the situation.
