A The application said on Thursday that, as has happened in China, Iran and Russia, it could leave Brazil if local laws threaten its mission to promote freedom of communication or impose unfeasible demands on it.
“In Brazil, a court asked us for data that is technologically impossible to obtain. We filed an appeal against the decision and await a final decision,” said Pavel Durov, co-founder of Telegram, in a message posted on the social network.
The executive added that, “regardless of the cost, we will defend our users in Brazil and their right to private communication”.
The Minister of Justice of Brazil announced on Thursday that Telegram would be suspended in the country following a decision by a court in the state of Espírito Santo (southeast) regarding the recent attacks on schools.
“A few hours ago, a court decision on Nazi and neo-Nazi groups that operate on social networks, particularly on one of them, the Federal Police asked and the judiciary granted that the social network that is not complying with the decisions, in this case Telegram, has a fine of 1 million reais (240 thousand euros) per day and temporary suspension of activities”, said Flávio Dino, to the local press.
According to the newspaper O Globo, the Directorate of Intelligence of the Federal Police would send a letter on Thursday to the country’s telecommunications companies asking them to suspend Telegram from the application platforms of Google and Apple.
On April 13, the Brazilian Government had announced that it would require social media platforms to remove content advocating violence in schools, following recent attacks on educational institutions.
These actions come after a second attack in 10 days in early April, this time with the murder of four children.
This new attack shocked Brazil and even had effects on the media, with several media outlets such as Estadão, or the Globo group, announcing not to publish photographs, videos, names or other information about the author of the attack in Blumenau.
Brazil has seen a series of similar attacks on schools in recent months.
On November 25, a 16-year-old teenager shot and killed four people in two successive attacks on two nearby schools in Aracruz, in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo.
Two months earlier, a man armed with a gun and two knives invaded a civic-military school and killed a student in the state of Bahia.
Also Read: Brazilian court suspends Telegram and applies daily fine
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