Sao Paulo, 24 Mar Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) proposed Thursday to Telegram form “an alliance” to fight misinformation together with a view to the presidential, regional and legislative elections in October. The court, responsible for organizing the elections in the country, met for the first time with Telegram's representative in Brazil, Alan Campos, after last Friday the Supreme Court ordered the precautionary blockade of the platform for refusing to “collaborate with the Justice.” The service, however, was never interrupted because Telegram complied with a series of “judicial determinations”, such as the withdrawal of false news published by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and on Sunday the judge in charge of the case annulled the suspension. Telegram has become the preferred communication tool of the president and the far-right groups that support him, who saw that many of his content was banned by other social networks as misleading or offensive. Brazilian authorities have tried to close an agreement with Telegram to combat misinformation, as they have done with Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, Instagram, YouTube and Kwai, but so far they have not succeeded. Thursday's meeting was a first step in that direction and served, as the TSE said in a note, to “discuss forms of collaboration for legitimate and safe elections in 2022". The electoral tribunal presented to Telegram its program of confronting disinformation, which it invited to join, and the level of cooperation they are seeking with them. He also emphasized “the concern with the problem of misinformation in relation to the electoral process”, which has been the subject of a smear campaign by the head of state, who argues, without evidence, that the electronic ballot boxes that Brazil has used since 1996 are a source of “fraud”. For his part, lawyer Alan Campos, Telegram's representative in Brazil, said that the platform “is committed” to combating misinformation and reported that he will take the TSE's proposal to the executives of the social network. He also stressed “the importance of opening this channel of dialogue” with the Brazilian electoral authorities and “reinforced Telegram's commitment to confronting fake news.” According to a poll released this Thursday, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose candidacy is practically a fact, is broadly leading the intentions for the October elections, with 43% of the support, compared to the 26% that Bolsonaro would get.
Read more!