Moraes authorizes investigation of Google and Telegram leaders – 05/12/2023 – Power

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), determined this Friday (12) the initiation of an investigation into the leaders of Google and Telegram in Brazil who have acted against the Fake News PL.

In his decision, he states that the investigation will be carried out “in the face of the directors and other officials” of the companies that “have participated in the abusive campaign” against the text of Congress.

He determined that the Federal Police act during an initial period of 60 days to elucidate any suspicions and that messages published by companies against the project be preserved and undergo forensic examination.

It also authorized representatives of the platforms in the country to give statements to the PF.

The request to open the investigation was made to the Supreme by the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic), which in turn responded to a request from the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

They are cited in the request to the PGR link made available by Google on May 1st, whose title was “the PL of
fake news can increase the confusion about what is true or false in Brazil” and also the message triggered by Telegram on the last day 9, which stated that a law would be passed that “will end freedom of expression”.

The Telegram message contained distortions about the Fake News PL, and Moraes threatened to take the platform off the air for a period of 72 hours if the messaging service did not remove it.

Lira argued to the PGR that the platforms encourage “their users to put pressure on congressmen” and promote a “disinformation campaign”.

This led, he said, to “a considerable overload in the IT services of the Chamber of Deputies, with the occurrence of instability in the portal and in the main support systems for legislative work” and affected legislative work.

The PGR, through the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Lindôra Araújo, asked to investigate the leaders on suspicion of crimes against democratic institutions, crimes against the consumerist order and crimes against the economy and consumer relations.

“The narrated factual scenario points to the existence of minimal information elements of the practice of criminal conduct that support the possibility of instituting an investigation procedure under the supervision of the Federal Supreme Court”, said Lindôra in the request.

“In this scenario, it is important to clarify the circumstances of the conduct reported by the Chamber of Deputies, represented by its president.”

She asked the Supreme Court to determine the preservation, with the preparation of an expert report, of all posts mentioned in the request, in addition to the identification and interrogation of representatives of the platforms, which was complied with by Moraes.