Brazilian Supreme Court Denda Telegram Rp3.5 Billion For Notcompliant With Court Decisions

JAKARTA - Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday, January 25 fined a Telegram messaging app for failing to comply with a court order calling for the suspension of accounts supporting former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. In that decision Telegram will be fined 1.2 million reais (Rp 3.5 billion).

The ruling, made based on an investigation investigating vandalism in public buildings in the nation's capital earlier this month. The court said that Telegram was ordered to block five different accounts that had shared content related to hate speech and encouraged institutional disruption.

However, Telegram did not block accounts belonging to elected congressmen Nikolas Ferreira, according to the decision.

Ferreira is the Brazil congressor with the most votes in the 2022 elections, reaching 1.47 million votes.

"The malicious non-compliance by the relevant providers shows that objectively, the agreement with the continuing crimes being investigated," the decision said, as quoted by Reuters.

Moraes gave Telegram five days to pay the fine since the decision was read out. But Telegram did not want to respond to the decision.

In March 2022, Moraes ordered the suspension of the messaging app Telegram, which has repeatedly refused to comply with a court order in Brazil to freeze accounts that spread disinformation. The suspension was lifted a few days later, after the company complied with a court request. But this time it seems that it is difficult to repeat itself.