The instant messaging application Telegram is blocked in Brazil from today, Saturday (19/3/2022). The reason is that Telegram did not respond to an e-mail sent by the Brazilian Supreme Court to the company's old e-mail address.
The contents of the e-mail sent by the Brazilian Supreme Court contained a request to block many Telegram accounts which were decided to violate Brazilian rules for allegedly spreading disinformation.
Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Telegram had repeatedly failed to suspend the infringing accounts. Then, Telegram was considered to have ignored the court's decision because it did not respond to e-mails from the court.
As a result, Moraes issued a decision ordering the suspension of the Telegram application in Brazil on Friday (18/3/2022). The order to block the Telegram application in Brazil is effective 24 hours after the verdict is issued, or starting today, Saturday (19/3/2022).
The Telegram app will remain blocked and unusable by Brazilian citizens, until Telegram complies with court orders regarding the suspension of accounts, paying a series of fines, and presenting state representatives before the courts.
Wrong e-mail address
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov have reportedly come and testified before a Brazilian court.
Update: Communications consultant Telegram Indonesia clarified that Pavel did not make a statement in court. Telegram claims that Pavel's statement was published on his Telegram account, https://t.me/durov/180.
In his statement, Durov said, there was a miscommunication between his company and the Supreme Court, which was caused by the use of the wrong e-mail address.
Durov said Brazil's Supreme Court was still using the old e-mail address of the Telegram company, which was intended for public purposes. His party has advised the court to send a request for account blocking to a special e-mail address.
"It seems that we have a problem with e-mails. As a result of this miscommunication, the court decided to block Telegram for not responding," Durov said.
"We have complied with the previous court decision at the end of February, and responded with a suggestion to send a removal request to a special e-mail address in the future," Durov continued.
Durov said that maybe the suggestion from his company did not reach the Supreme Court, so the court still sent the account blocking request via the company's old e-mail address.
"As a result, we missed the decision in early March that contained a request for further account deletion," Durov added.
The CEO of Telegram claimed to have found the e-mail of the decision from the Supreme Court and was processing it.
"On behalf of our team, I apologize to the Brazilian Supreme Court for our negligence. We could certainly have done a better job," Durov said, as compiled by Alfa Freedom from The Verge, Saturday.
The accounts the court asked to block appear to be accounts affiliated with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters.
The reason is that Judge Moraes himself is reportedly intensively investigating President Bolsonaro and his supporters for spreading fake news through popular applications, such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Google.
Previously, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Google had also complied with the Supreme Court's order to shut down violating accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation, as compiled from Reuters.