Facebook obeys Brazil court order, blocks Bolsonaro allies' accounts worldwide

Facebook on Saturday, August 1 announced that it has obeyed the court's order for a worldwide block on the accounts of 12 supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

The social network's move comes after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes noted that the company had failed to fully comply with a previous ruling ordering the accounts to be taken down. As per reports, Moraes said that the accounts were very much active and even publishing by altering their registration to locations outside of Brazil. 

According to international media reports, Facebook said that it complied due to the threat of criminal liability for an employee in Brazil. The social media company, however, also called the Brazilian court order ‘extreme’.

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It is further reported to have said that the new order poses a “threat to freedom of expression outside of expression outside of Brazil’s jurisdiction and conflicting with laws and jurisdictions worldwide”. 

Facebook, in a statement, said that it would appeal to the full court. As per reports, the company has argued that it had complied with the previous order by ‘restricting’ the target pages and profiles from being seen with IP locations in Brazil. The social media conglomerate added that people in Brazil were not able to see the concerned pages and profiles even if the targets had changed their IP location. 

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Facebook to pay $367,000

Since, according to Moraes, Facebook failed to obey the previous orders, the Supreme Court Justice is reported to have said that the social media company ought to pay $367,000 in penalties.

Meanwhile, the SC Judge also had ordered Twitter to block the accounts. However, the company said that the decision was ‘disproportionated’ under Brazil’s freedom of speech rules. As per reports, Twitter has disabled the targeted profiles and said that it would appeal the order. 

The Brazilian court's decision is a part of an ongoing probe into the alleged dissemination of threats and fake news by supporters of Bolsonaro. The probe is one of the main points of confrontation between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court. As per reports, the Brazilian President has filed a lawsuit last week demanding the accounts to be unblocked. 

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