Telegram app back on in Brazil after judge lifts suspension

By ELÉONORE HUGHES
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Internet providers and wireless carriers in Brazil have stopped blocking Telegram after a federal judge partially revised a ruling suspending the social media app over its failure to surrender data on neo-Nazi activity. However, in lifting the suspension the judge is keeping in place a daily fine of $200,000 for Telegram’s refusal to provide the data, according to a court statement Saturday. Telegram had been temporarily suspended pursuant to a police inquiry into school shootings in November, when a former student armed with a semiautomatic pistol fatally shot three people and wounded 13 at two schools. Telegram’s CEO claims compliance with the order to provide infomation is “technologically impossible” and says the company is appealing.