Telegram is back online in Brazil: the changes to the platform to lift the ban

Two days after banning the use of Telegram in Brazil, the Supreme Court of that country lifted the sanction imposed last Friday for not complying with court orders, according to a report by The New York Times.

The platform made several changes for the court to reverse the ban, which will keep disinformation in Brazil at bay.

It also removed classified information shared by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and, as part of its actions for the government’s approval, Telegram proceeded to remove the accounts belonging to Allan dos Santos, an activist and supporter of the president, accused of misinforming.

In addition, the company promised to label posts that contain false information and promote those with factual information. It will also have its employees monitor the 100 most popular channels in Brazil.

All because of an unread email

Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, an opponent of President Bolsonaro, ordered a ban on the app, which ended up lasting only two days. Telegram has become the president’s favourite communication channel, with 1.1 million subscribers on his channel.

Jair Bolsonaro is under investigation for leaking police documents and has been accused of spreading false information in the past.

As Telegram CEO Pavel Durov explained, his company didn’t take action earlier because they were checking the wrong email inbox and couldn’t see the messages from the Brazilian court.

“ We complied with a previous court decision in late February and responded with a suggestion to send future removal requests to a dedicated email address. Unfortunately, our response must have been lost, because the old general purpose email address was used by the Court in other attempts to contact us,” Durov wrote on his app channel.

“As a result, we missed your decision in early March that contained a tracking removal request. Fortunately, we have now found and processed it.”

The CEO showed his concern for the millions of users who use Telegram in Brazil: “Because tens of millions of Brazilians trust Telegram to communicate with family, friends and colleagues, I ask the Court to consider delaying its ruling for a few days to your discretion to allow us to remedy the situation by appointing a representative in Brazil and establishing a framework to react to future pressing issues like this in an expeditious manner.”

Fortunately, everything remained in an unread email and the parties were able to reach an agreement to fight misinformation and keep Telegram operational in Brazil.