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RIO DI JANEIRO – A Brazilian judge yesterday reversed the suspension of the Telegram messaging app, imposed by a court after its parent company failed to provide data sought by authorities on neo-Nazis operating on the network.
That court had fined Telegram a million reais (RM883,000) per day and ordered the temporary suspension of its activities for failing to assist in a probe into neo-Nazi activity on social networks related to violence in schools.
But Judge Flavio Lucas ruled that the suspension of the app throughout the country was “not reasonable”, since it affects “the freedom of communication of thousands of people absolutely unrelated to the facts being investigated”, the Federal Regional Court-2 (TRF-2), based in Rio de Janeiro, said in a statement.
But the judge upheld the daily fine of one million reais (USD 198,000) imposed on the company originally.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino said last week that groups with anti-Semitic names were “acting in those networks, and we know that this is at the core of violence against our children,” he added, in reference to a recent spate of attacks in schools.
Earlier this month, a man carrying a hatchet killed four children aged four to seven at their school in the same week as two other, non-fatal school attacks.
Last month, a 13-year-old boy killed a teacher in a knife attack at a school in Sao Paulo.
And last November, a 16-year-old shooter killed four people and injured more than 10 others in twin attacks on two schools in Aracruz, in the southeastern state of Espirito Santo.
The G1 news portal, citing police sources, reported the teenager had allegedly interacted with anti-Semitic groups on Telegram. – AFP, April 30, 2023