the minister Alexandre de Moraesof Federal Court of Justice (STF), applied this Wednesday (25) a fine of BRL 1.2 million to telegram for not complying with a decision handed down by him on January 11th. The order was to block five channels that operate within the platform, as well as provide their registration data to the STF and preserve their content, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 100,000.
Telegram is fined by the STF: but what happened?
On the day in question, Minister Alexandre de Moraes had ordered that five Telegram channels be blocked in a maximum period of two hours from the decision. Telegram reported partial compliance with the blocking order, but asked what content on the channel of elected federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) should be blocked from time to time.
Moraes stated that Telegram’s attitude constitutes a “willful non-compliance” and an “agreement with the continuity of the crimes under investigation”. The app claimed that many of the Court’s orders to remove content are done “disproportionately” and with “general reasoning”.
Like any private entity that carries out its economic activity in the national territory, the Telegram social network must effectively respect and comply with direct commands issued by the Judiciary regarding facts that occurred or with their perennial effects within the national territory; it being up to him, if he deems it necessary, to demonstrate his non-conformity through the resources allowed by Brazilian legislation.”
Alexandre de Moraes
Minister of the STF
Telegram does not block Councilor Nikolas Ferreira’s channel
Telegram complied with Moraes’ determinations in relation to three other channels, but it refused to block the channel of the elected councilor and federal deputy, Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), because there was “no basis or justification for the complete block”.
Thereby, the minister imposed a fine of BRL 1.2 million which was calculated taking into account the total time of 12 days that have passed since the receipt of the court order until today’s date. This is the second time Telegram has been fined by Moraes. In March 2022, a daily penalty of BRL 100,000 was applied.
Source: STF
