A federal court in Brazil has ordered a
temporary ban on the messaging service Telegram after it refused to share
information about neo-Nazi group leaders with the police. According to a
statement by the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, Google, Apple, and four
Brazilian telecom companies have been ordered to remove Telegram from their
application stores and other platforms.
Telegram will be fined $198,000 per day until it complies with providing
the data.
The police requested access to the data after discovering that a
16-year-old who killed four people and injured around a dozen others in two
schools in Aracruz had spread anti-Semitic content on Telegram groups. The data
request to Telegram by the police stated that the suspect shared videos
depicting violent deaths, bomb-making videos, and materials promoting hatred
towards minorities.
Investigators hope to learn more about the connections
between members of extremist groups and their leaders, as well as whether the
group influenced the perpetrator to commit the crime.