Communication vehicles also continue to publish messages in the application, even after suspension by court order
Even with the court decision that established the temporary suspension of the Telegram application in Brazil, on Tuesday (25.Apr.2023), some politicians such as senators Sergio Moro (União-PR), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and councilor Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicanos-RJ) continue to use the social network, in addition to parties, through official channels, such as the PT (Workers’ Party).
Communication vehicles also continue to publish on their profiles in the application. Survey made by Power360 points out that news portals CNN Brasil, Metropolis, The Antagonista It is Sputnik Brazil are some of those who continue to use the messaging application.
The decision (here’s the full – 300KB), published at 7:22 pm by Judge Wellington Lopes da Silva, of the 1st Federal Court of Linhares (ES), establishes the “sanction of temporary suspension of Telegram activities in Brazil“. There are no specifications about sanctions foreseen for users and channels that, eventually, remain using Telegram resources even with the suspension.
The document also does not mention the possibilities of accessing the network through extension resources, such as VPN – an acronym that comes from the English Virtual Private Networkor “virtual private network”, in the Portuguese translation.
The judge explained that the decision was based on compliance “precarious” by the court order messaging app that forced platforms to hand over information about Nazi and neo-Nazi groups on social media to the PF (Federal Police).
The VPN allows the use of a private Internet communication connection, with features such as confidential browsing, and can hide user data, such as the IP number, a kind of “virtual address”. This feature prevents telephone companies and internet providers in general from knowing the origin of messages. For this reason, it is possible that some people or companies continue to use Telegram, despite the legal blockade. Despite the feature, even users who have not installed the VPN continue to receive message notifications on their cell phones.
According to the director of APCF (National Association of Federal Criminal Experts), Evandro Mário Lorens, there is no impediment to the use of VPN from a legal point of view. The virtual private network is “a technology like any other – which, by itself, does not infringe any legal diploma”he said.
However, Lorens considers that access to Telegram through the resource may, to some extent, constitute a breach of the court order, if the decision applies to users and use in the national territory.
The criminal lawyer Barone Mariano states that the simple use of the VPN does not represent illegal conduct. “There is no specific legislation for the act, unless it is framed, in a forced way, the crime of disobedience [art. 330 do Código Penal]. That would be very difficult, because the decision does not say that we cannot use [a rede social]but rather, that Telegram must be overthrown”.
In March 2022, the president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), Minister Alexandre de Moraes, determined the blocking of Telegram for non-compliance with a court order. The decision was revoked within 3 days. At the time, users also sought the VPN to circumvent the decision and access the social network, even at the risk of a fine.
See messages published on Telegram by politicians and parties in Brazil after the court decision:
- PT (Workers’ Party):
- Senator Sergio Moro (União-PR):
- Councilman Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicanos-RJ):
- Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ):
See the list with images of which newspapers published on Telegram after the court decision:
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