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Telegram App Back On In Brazil After Judge Lifts Ban

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Telegram App Back On In Brazil After Judge Lifts Ban

(CTN News) – Telegram will no longer be blocked by Brazilian internet providers and wireless carriers after a judge partially revised a ruling that suspended the app for not turning over neo-Nazi data.

Despite this, the judge kept the daily fine for Telegram’s refusal to provide the data at $1 million reais (about $200,000), according to a press release from the federal court.

“I don’t think a total suspension is fair, since it affects thousands of people who don’t know anything about the case,” said judge Flávio Lucas.

A police inquiry into school shootings in November suspended the Telegram temporarily. Three people were killed and 13 were wounded after a former student barged into two schools in Aracruz, a small town in Espirito Santo state with a semiautomatic pistol and wearing a bulletproof vest.

A court statement said the 16-year-old was on extremist channels that disseminated murder and bomb-making tutorials.

According to the court statement, the federal police ordered Telegram to provide names, tax ID numbers, profile photos, bank details, and credit card numbers of channel members and then disputed claim that it couldn’t comply because the channel was suspended.

In a statement Thursday, Telegram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov said the company is appealing the Brazil-wide ban, saying compliance is “technologically impossible” and that mission is to protect privacy.

According to its FAQ, it has never shared user data with the government.

Telegram doesn’t seem to be able to provide all the requested data. A phone number is all you need to create a Telegram account, and pseudonyms are usually used.

Additionally, Telegram started offering anonymous accounts in December.

It was noted in the court statement that Telegram had “past clashes with the judiciary” in Brazil. A Supreme Court judge ordered Telegram’s nationwide shutdown last year, arguing that it had not cooperated with authorities. A two-day ban was lifted after Durov blamed a communication snafu for the initial lack of response.

‘Technology companies need to understand that cyberspace cannot be a free territory, a different world… created and managed by those who exploit it for commercial gain,’ said Lucas, the judge in the current case, on Saturday.

A wave of attacks on schools has been sweeping Brazil. Since 2000, there have been almost two dozen attacks at schools, half of them in the last 12 months, including the April 5 killing of four kids.

School violence is being tackled by Brazil’s federal government, with a particular focus on social media. Our goal is to prevent further incidents by holding platforms accountable for not removing allegedly violent content.

Earlier this month, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with his Cabinet ministers, Supreme Court justices, governors, and mayors about social media regulation.

Russia, Iran, and China have all blocked Telegram in the past.

Since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year, Durov, an ethnic Russian, has been able to coexist with the Kremlin despite its crackdown on speech and Western media.

The app is used by so-called “patriotic” hackers to plan cyberattacks on Ukrainian and NATO targets. They use it to fight back.

Telegram groups are regularly tracked by security researchers and intelligence agencies, including ransomware gangs, disinformation purveyors, terror groups and others.

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