A Supreme Court judge in Brazil ruled Friday to block popular messaging application Telegram nationwide, barring one of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s favorite communication channels.

Citing Telegram’s failure to comply with orders from Brazilian authorities and remove messages found to contain disinformation, Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the app blocked immediately in Brazil, in a ruling dated Thursday and published Friday on the high court’s website.

“Telegram’s disrespect for Brazilian law and repeated failure to comply with countless court decisions… is completely incompatible with the rule of law,” wrote Moraes.

He said the company had repeatedly refused to comply with rulings and requests from police, the Superior Electoral Tribunal and the Supreme Court itself.

That includes a Supreme Court-ordered investigation into allegations against the Bolsonaro administration of using official communication channels to spread disinformation, he said.

Bolsonaro reacted on Twitter, posting a link to subscribe to his channel on Telegram — which was still operational in Brazil Friday afternoon.

“Our Telegram informs people every day of many important actions of national interest, which many regrettably omit,” he said.

“Welcome, and share the truth.”

Telegram is hugely successful in Brazil, where it has been downloaded on 53 percent of all cell phones.

Bolsonaro, who has had various posts blocked on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for violating their rules on misinformation, has been eagerly encouraging his base to follow him on Telegram as he gears up to seek reelection in October.

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Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Moraes orders service providers to block Telegram and establishes a 100k BRL/day fine for any person who uses VPN to access the platform

SOURCE

Lalasticlala Mynd44

serious nation unlike NIGERIA..the time they banned Twitter,it was like nothing happened... VPN all the way... SMH

.

To me i will still use vpn to access that app


That app ranks from access to


-free udemy course
-free hacking tutorials
-free br..owsing tweaks
-random search of group and channel if you are bored, update which WhatsApp doesn't have
-Heavily privacy concern

and so more



If you use telegram come and sign your own signature in that like button

This is just judicial radicality. The president should just continue to disobey the order.

Judiciary can not take over the function of the Executive. There must be a delineated separation of power and functions.

Invasion of privacy and freedom of speech and association, this one don pass dictatorship in Africa

lol aw u go say make a Messaging app dey delete people messages are u trying to make a Law dat will be invading people's privacy.....

rickpat:
serious nation unlike NIGERIA..the time they banned Twitter,it was like nothing happened... VPN all the way... SMH

Please show me your source that states Twitter user population didn't fall massively after twitter was suspended in Nigeria.

Yes, Nigeria is not where we want it to be, but make una no too dey really underestimate am like say nah Chad.

What Telegram can't do In China, make dem no try am for Brazil.

Some people can still bypass the telegram if the download other messaging apps that uses the telegram API and use inbuilt proxy changer

....

It was a mild punishment after all they disrespected a judge. When ordinary people disrespected a judge they spend months in prison.