A Brazilian judge issued an order Monday blocking the popular WhatsApp smartphone messaging application nationwide, the second such shut-down in six months.
Advertisement
Judge Marcel Montalvão, from the small city of Lagarto, ordered the country’s wireless operators to obstruct use of the app for 72 hours, or face a daily fine of 500,000 reais fine (around $140,000). It took effect at 2 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET); people in Brazil tried to use the service could not connect, nor could they send or receive any messages due to this. WhatsApp is very popular globally and is said to have in excess of one billion users and has about 100 million in Brazil alone.
“We are disappointed a judge in Sergipe decided yet again to order the block of WhatsApp in Brazil”, Facebook said after the decision was announced. WhatsApp now uses end-to-end encryption, which means that even the company executives can not read user messages.
World News – What would you do without Whatsapp? This is the second time since a similar order to block WhatsApp last December for 48 hours.
Tech-sector analysts suspect that there may be an economic motive behind Brazilian efforts to disrupt access to WhatsApp.
A judge in Brazil has overturned the suspension of WhatsApp in the country, reports Reuters.
WhatsApp has been banned in Brazil after refusing to hand over information relating to a criminal investigation. Basically WhatsApp was ordered to turn over data related to a drug case, but the company claims that this is information that they did not have, which ultimately led to the service being blocked.
During the last shutdown, the providers appealed against the court order, arguing it affected millions of people unconnected to the case.
He was released after one night in jail after a higher court judge ruled the arrest had been “an extreme measure”.
Advertisement
This is the second time in five months that the messaging service has been blocked in Brazil, the last time it was blocked was back in December of a year ago for 48 hours.
