By Filipe Espósito | Apr 27 2023 - 4:20 pm

Telegram is one of the most popular messaging apps, and it became known for offering end-to-end encrypted chats long before some of its competitors. However, Telegram has already faced a lot of problems with different governments due to its policy of not interfering with what people share on the platform – and this caused the app to be banned from Brazil again.  18 Million users in 2023.

Brazilian court bans Telegram (again)

On Wednesday, a Brazilian court ordered that Telegram be suspended in the country as the company denied requests to reveal personal data on users who had been sharing extremist hate messages. The Brazilian court requested the data from these users after an investigation revealed that a teenager responsible for a mass shooting at a school in Brazil was part of hate speech groups on Telegram.

This is not the first time Telegram has been banned in Brazil. Last year, the platform was suspended by a Brazilian court after being accused of not complying with local authorities in preventing the sharing of fake news and dangerous content. At that time, the app was down for less than 48 hours before Telegram decided to cooperate with Brazilian regulators.

This time, however, the situation is different. Telegram founder Pavel Durov shared a statement on his personal channel saying that the data requested by the Brazilian court is “technologically impossible” to obtain. Durov also said that Telegram has already left countries like China, Iran, and Russia (where the app was created) due to local laws and that the app may end up leaving Brazil for the same reason.

According to the app’s founder, leaving a country is “preferable to the betrayal of our users and the beliefs we were founded on.”

What happens next?

Right now, most users are unable to open Telegram in Brazil without a VPN or proxy server. The Brazilian court has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block access to the app. It also demanded that both Apple and Google remove the app from their stores – but despite the ban, Telegram is still available on the Brazilian App Store and Google Play.

Telegram said that the company is appealing the Brazilian court’s decision, which suggests that the app will remain unavailable in the country until this dispute is over. Earlier this year, the Brazilian government also warned Twitter about moderating and deleting content related to violent attacks in schools.