According to a statement from the Supreme Court, Telegram was fined by Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday for failing to block the account of a far-right politician and social media influencer.
Nikolas Ferreira’s accounts and others were suspended by Telegram earlier in January “to stop the propagation of criminal expressions,” according to the statement.
The court stated that failing to terminate Ferreira’s account “is regarded indirect participation to the continuation of unlawful conduct.”
Ferreira, a federal representative from the state of Minas Gerais, has more than 300,000 subscribers on Telegram, 3.6 million followers on Tik Tok, and over 6 million followers on Instagram. He tends to post evangelical and far-right content, and support for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazilian authorities are still investigating after hundreds of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed government buildings in the capital Brasilia earlier in January, following his defeat in a presidential run-off vote last year.
Ferreira’s social media savvy has played a part in catapulting the 26-year-old’s political career forward; in 2022, he was elected with the most votes of all representatives running nationwide, and the third most votes cast for any representative in Brazil’s history.
Tweeting about the case Wednesday, Ferreira wrote, “They want to disappear me from the internet.”
Telegram is being fined 100,000 Brazilian reais (about $20,000) per day of noncompliance, according to a news release from the Supreme Court.
In a letter from Telegram to Moraes, obtained by CNN Brasil, the company responded asking that the order be reconsidered.
It points out that Ferreira is an elected official, and says no specific criminal content was identified in the order. “No grounds or justifications were provided for the complete blocking of said channel, that is, the specific contents that would be considered illegal were not presented,” the letter said.
CNN has reached out to Telegram for comment.
The Supreme Court has acknowledged that Telegram reported partial compliance with the order, but requested clarification on which specific content to block.