Brazilian court gives WhatsApp three hours to suspend Lula-supporting channel — The Rio Times
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court ordered WhatsApp to suspend within three hours the operation of the “Exército do Lula” channel, which supports President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The decision was made by the court’s president, Cássio Nunes Marques, The Rio Times reports.
The channel is run by federal lawmaker André Janones, a Lula ally from the Avante party. According to documents cited in the court ruling, the channel had about 55,000 subscribers on the morning of October 5, and their number rose to 2,090,796 by October 7. TV channel SBT News estimated its audience at more than 3.2 million subscribers.
Terms of the court ruling
The channel’s suspension will remain in effect until the official confirmation of the results of the second round of the presidential election, scheduled for October 25. The court also ordered Meta, which owns WhatsApp, to retain the channel’s records and messages for at least one year.
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The ruling provides for a fine for failure to comply with the requirement, but its amount was not disclosed. Marques stated that the channel operated as a coordination center for the mass dissemination of claims he considered knowingly false. At the same time, the judge stressed that digital mobilization itself is lawful. As of the evening of October 11, it was unknown whether WhatsApp had complied with the court’s decision.
Bolsonaro campaign’s lawsuit
The complaint regarding the channel was filed by the campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Flávio Bolsonaro is Lula’s opponent in the second round of the election.
On October 10, the electoral court reported that Bolsonaro’s side had filed a case over possible abuse against Lula, his campaign ally Geraldo Alckmin, and Janones. The filing alleges that Janones coordinated disinformation against Bolsonaro and used public campaign funds to promote negative advertising. The court accepted the case for consideration but stressed that this does not mean the claims have been recognized as true, and requested additional evidence.
