Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Demands that Telegram be Banned Due to How it Doesn’t Censor Hate Speech and “Misinformation”
Free speech is under assault across the globe.
While it’s fashionable to only focus on American politics, just taking a look at how politics is breaking down in nations to the south of the US’s border goes to show tenuous of a spot free speech finds itself in these days.
For example, Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, a Justice of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil (Supremo Tribunal Federal) and President of the Superior Electoral Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) demanded that the messaging app be prohibited unless it sets up legal representation in the country and follows the TSE’s ““Program to Combat Misinformation” (“Programa de Enfrentamento à Desinformação”).”
The TSE is a court that organizes Brazil’s elections and features three justices from the STF. The TSE kicked off the Program to Combat Misinformation back in August 2019.
The program is directed against “misinformation within the scope of the Electoral Justice” and has forged partnerships with several Big Tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube. Furthermore, the program has targeted Telegram on its official blog and called attention to the fact that Telegram is the only major instant messaging app or social media platform that hasn’t been participating in this Program to Combat Misinformation.
Tom Parker of Reclaim the Net observed that “Barroso’s call for Telegram to be banned follows him sending a letter to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov last month which requested a meeting to discuss cooperating with the TSE to combat ‘fake news’.”
Barroso asserted that Durov and Telegram have not even bothered to respond to the letter and other attempts to reach out to the company and has called on Brazil’s National Congress to prohibit the messaging app unless it sets up “adequate legal representation” in Brazil and works with the TSE.
“For a company to operate in Brazil, it has to be subject to Brazilian laws and the jurisdiction of our courts,” Barroso declared in a statement he made to Brazilian media outlet Poder360.
“More than a generation of Brazilians fought to build democratic institutions and it is our duty to defend them against hatred, misinformation and authoritarian extremism,” Barroso added.
As Barroso is relying on Brazil’s National Congress to clamp down on Telegram, the TSE has hinted at potentially taking direct action against Telegram directly and will talk about potential measures it can take against the messaging app at the start of February.
“Will we ban Telegram in Brazil?” TSE deputy minister Maria Claudia Bucchianeri asked in an interview with Marie Claire magazine. “Something needs to be done.”
So far, Telegram has not been blocked in Brazil. Other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp have been blocked in Brazil on multiple occasions.
One thing that Parker noted is that Telegram is facing pressure during a year when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is running for re-election. So far, he has amassed a following of over one million subscribers on Telegram.
Twitter and YouTube have censored Bolsonaro’s content several times. Bolsonaro has praised Telegram for its commitment to free speech.
“Of course we’re growing our network on Telegram,” Bolsonaro declared back in October. “It doesn’t have any censorship, so it has to be this way. These days, if you post a story pointing out a problem with the vaccine, you’re called a flat-earther, a denier, a propagator of fake news. People, Telegram is an alternative.”
Bolsonaro has a strong and dedicated following on Telegram that helped propel him to win Time magazine’s Person of the Year reader poll in 2021.
Bolsonaro is up for re-election on October 2, 2022. He’s one of the most prominent right wing populist voices on the international Right.
Like many populist figures in power, Bolsonaro has had to put up with his fair share of internal intrigue, from dealing with Brazil’s judiciary to its bureaucracy. Not to mention internationalist forces such as Big Tech and non-governmental organizations.
There’s a concerted effort to shut down the populist Right worldwide. Populists across the globe should at least band together to resist Big Tech and the NGO industrial complex’s efforts to cancel the right.