Brazil fines Telegram over $200K per day amid speech purge

A Brazil judge has reversed a nationwide ban on social media platform Telegram after the company refused to hand over user data at the behest of Brazilian authorities. Instead, the messaging app will be fined one million reais ($200,553) per day if it operates in Brazil and refuses to comply with censorship orders.

The Lula administration has launched a major crackdown on speech following an April 5th attack on a nursery in Santa Catarina when a man massacred four children with an ax. The incident marks the ninth school attack in eight months.

Authorities have already arrested over 300 people — including minors — who have been accused of hate speech online or “stoking school violence” though the charges have not been detailed and investigations are under seal. Officials have been pushing for legislation that will make certain speech on social media illegal, though they insist this will not hamper freedom of expression.

Minister of Justice and Public Security Senator Flávio Dino claims "the idea that regulating and monitoring the internet would be against freedom of expression is false." The Communist Party member added that censorship, in fact, is central to freedom of expression.

"It is only possible to preserve freedom of expression by regulating it," claimed Dino. "We already have, at this point, affirmed that criminal networks are strongly organized in this theme of violence against schools," added the communist politician.

Last week, Telegram appealed a decision by a Brazilian federal court to ban the platform after it failed to hand over user data. Telegram executives were told by authorities that there were “two neo-Nazi groups” on the platform planning school attacks and were ordered to provide information on the users to federal law enforcement. 

When it failed to do so, Telegram was removed from the Apple Store and Google Play Store in Brazil on Thursday. 

However, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov argued to the Federal Regional Court of the 2nd Region that due to the platform's innate privacy-centric technology which allows encrypted messaging, it is “technologically impossible” to comply with the order. Compliance would also run counter to the company’s mission “to preserve privacy and freedom of speech around the world”, which has attracted millions of users seeking an alternative to censored platforms such as Facebook and TikTok.

On Saturday, Federal Judge Flávio Lucas reversed the original court order, saying it "is not reasonable" to completely suspend the service which is used by millions who are unrelated to the school attacks. The judge did, however, uphold the fine.

The decision comes as the government prepares to vote on amended legislation Tuesday that would force social media companies to remove users without notice for a host of reasons, which include posting content against “the Democratic rule of law”. Amended law PL 2.630 would require the removal of any user guilty of “dissemination or sharing of facts that are known to be untrue, or seriously out of context, that affect the integrity of the electoral process”.

Social media companies who do not rid their platforms of fake accounts and comply with government orders will face fines of R$100,000 ($20,053) to R$150,000 ($30,080) per hour, a R$50,000 ($10,026) increase from current fine limits. Furthermore, while current fines are only parameters and not legally mandatory, this amendment would stamp such fines into law.

The legislation was proposed Tuesday by Supreme Court Justice and Superior Electoral Court (TSE) President Alexandre Moraes, a known advocate for censorship and a personal friend of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recently, Moraes compared the perpetrators of school attacks to Brazilians who questioned the legitimacy of November’s presidential election.

Indeed, legislation put into effect before last year's election allows ministers to remove, ex officio, posts that were “untrue or seriously decontextualized that affect the integrity of the electoral process”.

Another amendment by Moraes which already passed a vote on Thursday says that social media companies are to be held liable for content boosted by their algorithms, such as advertisements and promotions.

Brazilian authorities have already suspended or removed over 750 social media profiles in the last two weeks under the pretext of preventing school violence.