Telegram has been banned in Brazil over disinformation issues

The Brazilian Supreme Court has banned Telegram in the country and has ordered Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel to implement the suspension within 24 hours. According to Reuters and The New York Times, Justice Alexandre de Moraes cited the messaging app’s failure to respond to previous judicial orders to freeze accounts spreading disinformation for his decision. 

In Brazil, Telegram has become the platform of choice for supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after social networks like Facebook and Twitter started implementing stricter measures against fake news. Moraes, who’s also currently overseeing a number of investigations into Bolsonaro and his allies for spreading disinformation, has ordered internet providers and phone carriers to block people’s access to Telegram in the country ahead of the presidential election in October. 

The Supreme Court justice has ordered Google and Apple to remove the messaging service from their app stores, as well. All the companies must comply within five days or face a fine of $20,000 per day. In addition, people caught using VPNs or other means to access Telegram after it’s already been blocked will also face a $20,000 fine. 

Bolsonaro called the decision “inadmissible” during an event. Anderson Torres, the Minister of Justice and Public Security appointed by Bolsonaro, criticized Moraes’ ruling and said the “monocratic decision” harms millions of Brazilians. 

Telegram Chief Executive Pavel Durov apologized and admitted that the company “definitely could have done a better job.” He also explained in a statement that missing emails were partly to blame:

“We complied with an earlier court decision in late February and responded with a suggestion to send future takedown requests to a dedicated email address. 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.”

Durov is asking the court to delay its ruling and give Telegram the chance to “remedy the situation” by appointing a representative in Brazil and setting up a framework that will allow the company to reply to pressing issues in the country more quickly. It remains to be seen whether the court will grant Telegram’s request. 

Update 03/19/22 1:30PM ET: We added and referenced Durov’s statement in the piece.

The ESA suspends its ExoMars joint mission with Russia

The ExoMars mission has been suspended. Its future is uncertain at this point in time, as the European Space Agency looks for a way to proceed without the involvement of Russian space agency Roscosmos. The ESA previously announced that it’s fully implementing sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states following the country’s invasion of Ukraine and that a 2022 launch for the ExoMars rover was looking unlikely. Now, the mission has officially been put on ice after the ESA’s ruling council met in Paris to assess the situation.

The ESA said in a statement:

“As an intergovernmental organisation mandated to develop and implement space programmes in full respect with European values, we deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine. While recognising the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its Member States.”

The council has determined that it’s impossible to keep cooperating with Roscosmos and has ordered the ESA Director General to take steps to suspend the operation. In addition, the council authorized the Director General to conduct and fast track an industrial study to find options on how the agency can move forward with ExoMars.

ExoMars is a two part mission, and the agencies sent its first spacecraft — the Trace Gas Orbiter — to Martian orbit back in 2016. They were supposed to launch a rover named after scientist Rosalind Franklin this year for the second part of the program after delays causes in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ESA was in charge of developing the rover, which was going to use a Russian launch vehicle and lander. 

This is just one of the space programs affected by the war in Ukraine. Roscosmos previously pulled out of the Guiana Space Center in retaliation for EU’s sanctions and also refused to launch OneWeb internet satellites that were supposed to head to orbit on Soyuz rockets. Dmitry Rogozin, the Director General of Roscosmos, also claimed that the sanctions against Russia could interrupt the operations of the country’s spacecraft that’s steering the ISS and could cause the station to “fall down into the sea or onto land. Russia stopped supplying the US with rocket engines, as well. At the time, Rogozin said “Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks.”

Impostor poses as Ukraine’s Prime Minister in video call with UK defense secretary

The British defense secretary has ordered an inquiry into a video call he received on Thursday from an imposter pretending to be Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister. In a series of tweets, the Right Honorable Ben Wallace disclosed that the man aske…

Zelensky signs bill legalizing crypto industry in Ukraine

Cryptocurrency will soon be a legal asset class in Ukraine, thanks to a new bill signed into law by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation tweeted today that both foreign and Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchanges are cleared to operate in the country. Crypto companies will soon be able to open accounts in Ukrainian banks as well. The world has sent an estimated $100 million in crypto donations to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, including the Ukrainian military, aid groups, hacktivists and everyday citizens.

“The signing of this Law by the President is another important step towards bringing the crypto sector out of the shadows and launching a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine,” wrote Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation in its announcement of the law’s signing.

Cryptocurrency has technically not been illegal in Ukraine (hence the millions in donations and the nation’s status as the leading country for crypto adoption). But digital assets in Ukraine have more or less operated in a legal gray area. Neither people nor companies in Ukraine could own or trade crypto in the market, for example. A spike in crypto crime and money laundering in Ukraine and Eastern Europe in recent years led to the nation’s government cracking down on the industry.

The new law sets forth a legal framework for Ukraine’s burgeoning crypto industry to exist, as well as taps the National Bank of Ukraine and its National Commission on Securities and Stock Market to serve as regulators. It also paves the way for more laws and a tax code on crypto, which, hopefully, will further legitimize the crypto industry in Ukraine. 

Congressional bills would ban tech mergers over $5 billion

Senator Elizabeth Warren has long made clear that she’s no fan of Big Tech, and her latest legislation proves it. She and House Representative Mondaire Jones have introduced legislation in their respective congressional chambers that would effectively ban large technology mergers. The Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act (PAMA) would make it illegal to pursue “prohibited mergers,” including those worth more than $5 billion or which provide market shares beyond 25 percent for employers and 33 percent for sellers.

The bills would also give antitrust regulators more power to halt and review mergers. They would have authority to reject mergers outright, without requiring court orders. They would likewise bar mergers from companies with track records of antitrust violations or other instances of “corporate crime” in the past decade. Officials would have to gauge the impact of these acquisition on labor forces, and wouldn’t be allowed to negotiate with the companies to secure “remedies” for clearing mergers.

Crucially, PAMA would formalize procedures for reviewing past mergers and breaking up “harmful deals” that allegedly hurt competition. The Federal Trade Commission has signalled a willingness to split up tech giants like Meta despite approving mergers years earlier. PAMA might make it easier to unwind those acquisitions and force brands like Instagram and WhatsApp to operate as separate businesses.

The act isn’t strictly focused on tech, but Warren made clear that industry was a target. She cautioned the FTC on Amazon’s proposed buyout of MGM Studios, and challenged Lockheed Martin’s since-abandoned attempt to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne.

If it becomes law, PAMA would ban the Amazon-MGM union (worth over $8.4 billion), Microsoft’s Activision deal ($68.7 billion) and relatively modest acquisitions like Google’s planned buyout of Mandiant ($5.4 billion). Tech firms would largely have to focus on acquiring ‘small’ companies, and would largely have to forego deals meant to expand market share or otherwise cement dominance in a given market.

However, there are obstacles that might prevent PAMA from reaching President Biden’s desk. Both the Senate and House bills have no Republican cosponsors — they’re either Democrats or left-leaning independents like Senator Bernie Sanders. That’s enough to clear the House, but the Senate bill could fail if it doesn’t obtain total support from sitting Democrats. As such, this may represent more of a declaration of Democrats’ intentions than a fundamental change in regulatory policies.

Cyberattack takes down Israeli government websites

Israel appears to be recovering from a large-scale cyberattack. According to Haaretz and Kan‘s Amichai Stein, attackers took down several Israeli government websites on Monday evening, including those for the ministries of health, interior, justice and welfare. The Prime Minister’s Office website was also affected. All of the websites are back online, the country’s National Cyber Directorate said in a statement.

The government hasn’t officially identified a likely perpetrator, but it did say the sites were victims of a denial of service attack that flooded them with traffic. Haaretz sources claimed the cyberattack targeted sites with a gov.il domain, and suspected that either a state actor or a “large organization” was responsible. DWnotes an Iran-linked hacker group supposedly took credit, and that this may have been retaliation for an alleged Israeli operation against an Iranian nuclear facility. Neither has been confirmed, however.

It’s unclear whether or not this is the largest cyberattack against Israel to date, as a defense source told Haaretz. However, the NCF and defense officials were reportedly concerned enough to declare a state of emergency and review the possible damage, including anything that might compromise other key websites and critical infrastructure.

In contrast to the assaults that hobbled Ukrainian government websites ahead of Russia’s invasion, the denial of service attacks here are unlikely to have done much damage. They made it difficult to reach the websites, but there’s no evidence the culprits defaced sites or compromised data. Still, the cyberattack may exacerbate an already tense situation — it comes just a day after Iran fired missiles at the Iraqi city of Erbil in an apparent warning to the US and its allies. Israel was already on guard, and the country is known to respond to cyberattacks with physical force.

Russia follows through on retaliation promise, bans Instagram

Russia has followed through on its plan to ban Instagram. The Washington Postreports the country shut down access on March 14th as promised, leaving nearly 60 million users (according to Statista) without easy access. Regulator Roskomnadzor issued the ban in response to Meta ‘temporarily’ letting Ukranian users call for the deaths of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his soldiers invading Ukraine.

Meta has reportedly changed its guidance since. According to Reuters, a leaked internal post from global affairs President Nick Clegg revealed the company was “narrowing the focus” of its policy to once again ban calls for Putin’s death, and to warn that the soldier exemption didn’t let people wish harm against all Russians.

It’s not certain if any Russians can access Instagram through VPNs. At least some users couldn’t use those connection tunnels to circumvent the ban. Major Instagram creators have been telling followers to join them in the secure chat app Telegram, which still operates in the country and has become vital during the Ukraine war as a relatively private and surveillance-resistant communications tool.

There’s no guarantee Russia will reverse its stance on Instagram even if it considers Meta’s revised guidance acceptable. The nation has already blocked Facebook and Twitter, and made it illegal for media to publish content that challenges the government’s official line on Ukraine. Putin’s administration has been determined to silence political dissent, and unknown agents have supposedly aided that goal by paying Russian TikTok stars to spread pro-Kremlin messages despite a ban on new uploads. Russia still considers Western social media a threat, and that’s unlikely to change in the near future.

This website allows Westerners to talk to Russians about the war in Ukraine

With the Kremlin restricting access to online platforms like Twitter and Instagram in recent days, people in Russia are quickly losing access to information about the war in Ukraine that doesn’t come from the government. Enter Squad303, a website creat…

Russian TikTok creators have reportedly been paid to share propaganda

The White House isn’t the only one trying to steer discussion of Ukraine on TikTok. Vice News has discovered that Russian TikTok influencers are reportedly being paid to share videos promoting the Putin government’s narrative surrounding the invasion. An anonymous operator in a Telegram channel has been telling creators what and when to post, what goals they must meet and otherwise dictating their content. At least some of the followers have over a million followers.

It’s unclear who is behind the campaign, but the operator claims to be a journalist and has looked for posters for additional pro-government content (such as supporting Russian athletes in the Olympics) and private companies. However, TikTok’s ban on new videos from Russia apparently isn’t an obstacle. The channel administrator tells influencers how to dodge the ban, and at least some producers have posted videos after the ban took effect.

The channel suddenly shut down on March 9th as Vice conducted its investigation. Most of the videos have since been removed, but the campaign team reportedly asked them to do this. Others remain, and it’s not certain how many similar initiatives might be underway. It’s also unclear if the propaganda was effective.

TikTok hasn’t commented on the pro-Kremlin campaign and told Vice about its general efforts to spot “emerging threats” and “harmful misinformation” surrounding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Whether or not the Russian government was involved with this TikTok effort, there’s little doubt the country has tried to control the online narrative on Ukraine. It has blocked social networks like Instagram, posted misinformation through its embassies’ accounts, circumvented bans on its state news outlets and criminalized media reports that contradict the official stance on the war. TikTok’s large user base may be a tempting target if Russia hopes to sway more of the internet to its side.

White House briefed TikTok influencers on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

It’s not just journalists receiving White House briefings on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Washington Post has learned Press Secretary Jen Psaki and National Security Council adviser Matt Miller helped virtually brief 30 TikTok influencers, including Khalil Greene and Jules Terpak, on the US approach to the war. They outlined the US’ strategic objectives in the area and answered creators’ questions on subjects ranging from relief efforts to a theoretical response if Russia used nuclear weapons.

White House digital strategy director Rob Flaherty characterized the briefing as both an effort to provide reliable information from an “authoritative source” and an acknowledgment TikTok is a “critically important” source for updates on Ukraine. It’s hoping to fight misinformation by reaching millions of TikTok followers, in other words.

There were concerns the briefing didn’t tackle hard questions. Jules Suzdaltsev, the operator of TikTok account Good Morning Bad News, said it felt like a press event “for kindergarteners.” Another TikTok news provider, Marcus DiPaola, also saw this as selective messaging — the White House didn’t address its involvement in other invasions, he said.

However helpful the presentation might have been, it’s not surprising the Biden administration would reach out to TikTok creators. Many younger internet users get at least some of their news from social networks like TikTok, and those outlets have been struggling to curb misinformation. TikTok halted video uploads and streams in Russia on March 6th, and only recently started labelling state-backed media outlets. Briefings like this will theoretically counter misinformation and get the official US strategy to people who would otherwise remain unaware.