BRAZIL – It seems as though Telegram is bending the proverbial knee once again after reportedly agreeing to censoring and ban accounts from the platform in order to be unbanned in Brazil.
On March 18th, Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered that Telegram be banned from operating in Brazil, alleging that the platform was not complying with the country’s law related to the spread of “fake news.”
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According to a report from Reclaim The Net following the imposed ban, the Brazil Supreme Court Justice “stated that the suspension must last until the effective compliance with previous court decisions, including the payment of the daily fines and some indication, in court, of official representation in Brazil.”
Two days later on March 20th, Judge de Moraes removed the imposed ban on Telegram, noting that the company had agreed to a variety of censorship requests and banning of certain accounts.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, had even apologized for not adhering to previous court orders of censorship from Brazil and highlighted the steps his company has taken to fall in line with being merely another pro-censorship platform.
Among those actions taken, according to a press release from Telegram, is the introduction of fact-checkers and flagging posts that may contain “inaccurate information.”
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“Over the past 24 hours, we’ve integrated technical means to flag specific posts in one-to-many channels as potentially containing inaccurate information. These notices can now be added to the end of any message on Telegram and will also remain visible when those messages are forwarded from the channel to private or group chats.
“To better identify these posts, we are establishing working relationships with important fact-checking organizations in Brazil, such as Agência Lupa, Aos Fatos, Boatos.org and others. We hope that this cooperation will allow us not only to flag specific posts as potentially containing disinformation, but also to add links to disclaimers that will lead to full explanations of relevant facts compiled by fact-checking organizations.”
This isn’t the first time that Telegram has engaged in censorship at the behest of governments demanding compliance from the company, as Red Voice Media previously reported earlier in March how Telegram banned news outlet Russia Today after being pressured by the EU.
The pressure from the EU to have Telegram ban Russia Today obviously stems from the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, with officials within the EU alleging that Russia Today merely serves as a vehicle for propaganda coming from the Kremlin.
Roughly one month earlier in February, Red Voice Media reported on how Telegram also unleashed the banhammer and censorship cudgel when being pestered by Germany over the alleged spread of COVID “misinformation” and purportedly “anti-Semitic” content on the platform.
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Yes I had high hopes aka delusions of freedom with Telegrams advertised spiel, but I found them to be liars and frauds and deceivers and about 3 months ago removed then from my devices.
Bye bye telegram
The only place you are going to be able to go for free speech is Gab. Germany tried the same stuff with them and were told to pound sand.
No RT in Canada, Telegram app says that it’s blocked by law in my country.