Late Wednesday, a judge had barred the wildly popular messaging app for 48 hours after WhatsApp failed to respond to two court orders “in a criminal investigation”, according to a court ruling.
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Meanwhile, users are flocking to WhatsApp’s rival Telegram, which has picked up over 1 million new users in a day.
If you’re in Brazil, you may have been upset that WhatsApp was blocked.
WhatsApp says it has a large user base in Brazil, with over 100 million users that include companies, government officials along with residents of the country.
The service offers free text and voice messaging over the internet, as well as the ability to make voice calls, also for free, and many people use it to communicate with family, friends and colleagues both inside of Brazil and overseas.
“We are disappointed in the short-sighted decision to cut off access to WhatsApp, a communication tool that so many Brazilians have come to depend on, and sad to see Brazil isolate itself from the rest of the world”, said Jan Koum, chief executive of WhatsApp, in a statement posted on Facebook.
However, the shutdown order stems from a criminal proceeding in the Sao Paulo State Justice Tribunal in São Bernardo do Campo, the court said in a statement. Facebook’s press office was not immediately available for comment.
As part of that case, WhatsApp has failed to comply with a judicial order issued July 23, the court said.
Zuckerberg said that he was “stunned that our efforts to protect people’s data would result in such an extreme decision by a single judge to punish every person in Brazil who uses WhatsApp”.
The country, which has a population of just over 200 million, can no longer access the hugely popular messaging service.
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However, the union representing Brazil’s cell phone service operators, SindiTelebrazil, denied in a statement the companies were the plaintiffs in the case. Many users frustrated by the ban moved to competitors such as Viber and Telegram.
