Telegram banned in Brazil, CEO says forgot to check right emails

After the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered Apple and Google app stores to ban Telegram within the country for failing to comply with its order, its Founder and CEO Pavel Durov said on Saturday that it happened because the company was checking the wrong email address of the Supreme Court.

"It seems that we had an issue with emails going between our telegram.org corporate addresses and the Brazilian Supreme Court," Durov said in a Telegram post.

"As a result of this miscommunication, the Court ruled to ban Telegram for being unresponsive," he added.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes earlier demanded telecommunications agency Anatel to officially suspend Telegram until it complies with local orders and pays fines.

Telegram allegedly failed to prevent users from spreading disinformation as it's become a communications hub for President Jair Bolsonaro.

Durov said he apologises to the Brazilian Supreme Court for the negligence.

"Unfortunately, our response must have been lost, because the Court used the old general-purpose email address in further attempts to reach us. As a result, we missed its decision in early March that contained a follow-up takedown request. Luckily, we have now found and processed it, delivering another report to the Court today," he informed.

He requested the court to consider delaying its ruling for a few days at its discretion "to allow us to remedy the situation by appointing a representative in Brazil and setting up a framework to react to future pressing issues like this in an expedited manner".

"The last three weeks have been unprecedented for the world and for Telegram. Our content moderation team was flooded with requests from multiple parties," Durov said, mentioning how people are using the platform following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.