The suit was filed in a federal court in
the central-west state of Goias.
Brazil has asked for the “immediate suspension
of all accounts that give information about the location of police radar,” the
office of the Attorney General of the Union,
who defense the state’s interest, said in a statement.
The government also wants “the definitive
closure of accounts revealing the date, time and place of police checkpoints,”
the statement said.
Several Brazilian states have adopted
strict zero-tolerance laws to tackle drunk-driving. Drivers are increasingly
using social media sites such as Twitter to alert others to the location of
police checkpoints.
The attorney general’s office said such a
move constituted “a direct blow to human life and security” of Brazil’s
citizens. About 55,000 people die in the country each year in road accidents.
News of the lawsuit raged on Twitter, with
some applauding the government’s move and others criticizing it, noting that
driver tweets also helped others avoid accidents and traffic bottlenecks, CBN
radio reported.
San Francisco-based Twitter announced last
month that it could block tweets on a country-by-country basis if legally
required to do so.
Twitter pledged to be transparent and said
it would post details of any removal of content to ChillingEffects.org, a
public database of takedown requests. No posts relating to the Brazil
case were found on Tuesday.