During a meeting with the president of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) on June 6, Telegram's Vice President Ilya Perekopsky announced the initiatives. According to the executive, Brazil is the first country in the world where Telegram is introducing the features, which could be expanded to other countries facing threats to democracy through the dissemination of false content. Telegram has announced a number of measures aiming to tackle the spread of disinformation through its platform in Brazil. These features are part of an agreement between the platform and the country's authorities ahead of the elections in October. Earlier, crypto enthusiasts had created a self-described “meme app” dubbed “gm” app wherein users would greet each other with “gm” or “good morning” messages. However, in September 2021, the gm app was down after a hacker reportedly gained access to the user data. Members can post their voice notes of themselves screaming. Interestingly, the group doesn’t allow to post anything else which might lead to an instant ban. As of now, there are more than 330 members in the group. The initiatives announced by Perekopsky include monitoring the content in groups. According to the executive, posts identified as lacking context or as containing false information will be flagged as a potential source of disinformation. The content is then forwarded to Telegram's fact-checking channels for analysis and subsequent publication of verified information.
from us