According to Globo, the judge in this case took offense at the way WhatsApp responded to the court’s demands, saying the company was treating Brazil like a “banana republic”.
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A judge on Tuesday suspended the WhatsApp smartphone messaging service across Brazil, where it is hugely popular, for failing to surrender user data in a police investigation, the court in Rio de Janeiro said.
WhatsApp also faces fines of 50,000 reais (£11,700; $15,300) per day until it complies with the judicial order.
“WhatsApp is blocked across the whole national territory”, a spokesman told AFP.
WhatsApp stood by its defense that encrypted messages sent over the app are not stored on its servers, an argument that has won out on appeal, quickly reversing recent blockages that still show the vast discretionary power of Brazil’s lower courts.
The shutdown angered users reliant on the free app in Brazil, where cell phone fees for texting and calls are high and where WhatsApp’s group chat and image-sharing functions have become embedded in everyday social interaction.
This time, telephone companies have been ordered to block WhatsApp indefinitely.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized such moves in December.
Representatives of the five Brazilian carriers ordered to block WhatsApp – Telefonica Brasil SA, América Móvil SAB’s Claro, TIM Participações SA, Oi SA and Nextel Participações SA – did not have an immediate comment. “As before, millions of people are cut off from friends, loved ones, customers, and colleagues today, simply because we are being asked for information we don’t have”.
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WhatsApp lawyers argue that the company does not have access to those messages and is therefore unable to comply with the request.
