Telegram is fined one million reais per day without providing the information.  | Photo: Twitter/@FastNews77

Brasilia, April 27 (RHC)-- Brazilian Justice has ordered the suspension of the messaging app Telegram nationwide for failing to provide authorities with information about neo-Nazi groups operating on the platform.

The Government is investigating the activity of Nazi and far-right groups operating on the Internet.  "The court accepted that the network that is not complying with the decisions, in this case Telegram, receive a fine of one million reais per day without providing the information ($250,000) and the temporary suspension of activities," according to the Brazilian Justice.

Such a decision comes as the messaging service has rejected a request from the Federal Police to supply the authorities with the complete data of users who maintain profiles with clear Nazi and neo-Nazi tendencies.

Telegram has recently handed over part of the requested information, but has refused to provide the Police with the contacts of members and administrators of a neo-Nazi group.  "We know that this is at the origin of the violence against our children and adolescents," said the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino.

The government has blamed violent attacks in schools on these groups, as they spread hate speech and threats through social networks.   The Ministry of Justice has tightened the rules regulating the activity of social networks in the country, including stricter control with content, supervision of the degree of threat, cooperation with authorities in the identification of dangerous users, among others. 

Telegram did not comply with such requirements, for which it faces a sanction, as stated by the Brazilian Justice. Last year, on the occasion of the presidential elections, the platform faced a threat of banning by the Superior Electoral Court if it did not combat disinformation.