Update: According to The New York Times, Brazil's Supreme Court has lifted the ban on Telegram after the app made some amendments to curb fake news in the country, as the planform promised to label misinformation.
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According to a report by Reuters, Justice De Moraes of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has instructed Apple Inc. and Google to assist the country in barring Brazilians from Telegram, an instant messaging social application. The order was given by the apex court this week to Brazil’s national telecommunication agency also called Anatel, instructing the agency to debar the instant messaging app's service until it abides with the judicial instructions and pay the hefty penalties.According to Reuters, the instant messaging application failed to prevent its users from sharing false information after it became the nerve center of communication for Brazil’s current elected head of state, Bolsonaro who encouraged his supporters on using the platform.
The instant messaging application’s executive Pavel Durov responded to the matter through his Telegram channel, stating that the company’s delayed reaction to the country’s order was because they kept emailing the complaints to a different email address.
According to Pavel Durov that the Telegram’s unresponsiveness to the judge’s order was caused by email addresses, which was the reason behind the two ends couldn’t communicate properly. He further elaborated that the company requested the court to address any complaints to the issued email address the company provided the court with, however, the court failed to do so and kept emailing the complaints to the Telegram’s other email address that’s used for basic purposes. Which made the company miss them, resulting in the court suspending Telegram’s services in the country.
Telegram stated that the company has found these emails, clearly showing that the other email address did indeed work which might make it worse for the Durov brothers because this shows that the management failed to notice these important complaints. The company right now is trying to redress its situation with the court; however, the situation is being targeted for political gains. Telegram is being condemned for spreading false information. The application is accused of being a platform used by right-wing political leaders to spread biased and false information for political gain. The application was caught in-between President Bolsonaro’s investigation, who’s being inquired for allegedly disclosing documents related to the Brazilian police and connecting COVID vaccination with AIDS using the platform.
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