Facebook said it had reluctantly complied with an order by Brazil’s Supreme Court to block the accounts of a dozen top allies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who were accused of spreading fake news about judges, according to the BBC.
But Facebook said it regarded the order as a threat to freedom of speech, and would lodge an appeal.
In May, a Brazilian court ordered Facebook to block 12 accounts, among which are those of Roberto Jefferson, leader of a party loyal to the president, and Luciano Hang, one of Brazil’s best known businessmen.
On Friday, the country’s Supreme Court fined Facebook 1.92m reais ($368 000) for refusing to block worldwide access to the accounts – it had only agreed to block access to accounts that could be accessed from Brazil – and a further 100 000 reais for each day it failed to comply.
In a statement, Facebook said that the order was extreme, ‘conflicting with laws and jurisdictions worldwide’.
However, given the ‘threat of criminal liability to a local employee, at this point we see no other alternative than complying with the decision by blocking the accounts globally, while we appeal to the Supreme Court’.
[Picture: Gustavo Lima/Câmara dos Deputados, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73990754]