Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is deeply displeased with a Supreme Court judge’s decision to block popular messaging service Telegram in Brazil. According to him, the ruling is “inadmissible” and endangers the “freedom” of Brazilians. According to Bolsonaro, it could even “cost lives”.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes decided to block Telegram because the company has repeatedly refused to suspend the accounts of some individuals engaged in the distribution of fake news and delete posts that he believes contain misinformation.
“The judge has not acted on the two or three people he thinks should be blocked, so he decided to hit 70 million people. What is at stake is our freedom,” Bolsonaro said at a meeting with evangelical church leaders in Rio Branco, in the northern state of Acre. According to the president, De Moraes’ decision could even “cost lives, due to a lack of contact options between patients and their doctors”.
Elections
Telegram is one of the main communication channels used by the far-right president for his election campaign. Although he has been well behind in the polls for his main rival, former president Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro hopes to be re-elected as president in October.
Other tech companies like Meta – owner of WhatsApp – and Alphabet – owner of Google and Twitter – have complied with court orders in recent years to block hate-mongering accounts. This allowed Russian founder and CEO Pavel Durov’s Telegram to become the channel of choice for the conspiracy theories, false information and insults of Bolsonaro’s supporters.
Disagreement with judge for a long time
De Moraes’ decision is another clash in the long-running disagreement between the judge and Bolsonaro. De Moraes is leading several investigations into Bolsonaro, his sons and some of his supporters for spreading fake news or classified information.
The interference of the judge has irritated Bolsonaro for some time. Last year, on September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, this led to an unprecedentedly hard attack by the president on De Moraes. “Stop being a villain, Alexandre de Moraes. Resign. I will no longer respect this judge’s decision,” Bolsonaro said at the time, among other things.
After major political commotion arose and his claim to stop following court decisions could potentially lead to impeachment proceedings, Bolsonaro caved. He more or less retracted his words in a ten-point statement co-written with former president Michel Temer: “I have spoken in the heat of the moment.”
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