Telegram refutes accusations made by Minister Flávio Dino against the platform

The Telegram Brazil published this Thursday (4) a statement in which he denies information conveyed by the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, and by the National Consumer Secretary, Wadih Damous. According to the platform, Telegram responded to the folder’s requests one business day after receiving the request for data and that, unlike other platforms, it would not have been informed about the demand until April 20, after rumors in the press that it would be making it difficult the investigations.

“Contrary to claims spread by Minister of Justice Flávio Dino, Telegram responded to SENACON’s request one business day after submission. Unlike other companies, Telegram was not informed about the request until the day it was found guilty of “not responding”.

The other platforms – Google, Meta, Kwai, Tiktok and Twitter – received letters from the Ministry of Justice regarding the sending of information on April 13. In the post, the Telegram included dispatches sent claiming not to have received it on that date, but a week later, on Friday, April 20th.

That is, according to the platform, the minister opened an administrative proceeding against Telegram on the same day that he would have sent the first request for information, with no time for defense or response.

A People’s Gazette contacted the Ministry of Justice about the demonstration, but has not yet received a response.

Telegram Suspension

Recently, on April 26, the court suspended Telegram in Brazil with the justification that the platform would not have cooperated with investigations by the Federal Police. Telegram provided information on neo-Nazi groups involved in recent cases of violence in schools, but the data was not considered sufficient by the PF, which brought the company to court.

On April 28, Twitter SEO Pavel Durov declared that the requests made by the PF were “technologically impossible to fulfill”.

After the negative repercussions of the suspension, federal judge Flávio Lucas, from the 2nd Specialized Panel of the TRF-2, partially reformed, on April 29, the injunction of the Federal Court of Espírito Santo against Telegram, overturning the suspension and maintaining the fine of BRL 1 million due to lack of data.

According to the judge, the complete suspension of the application throughout the country “is not reasonable, considering the widespread affectation throughout the national territory of the freedom of communication of thousands of people who are absolutely strangers to the facts under investigation”.