Brazilian Judge Orders WhatsApp Messenger Blocked for 72 Hours Affecting 100 Million People

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Posted May 3, 2016 at 2:30pm by iClarified

A Brazilian judge has ordered the country's wireless phone carriers to block access to WhatsApp for 72 hours.

It appears that prosecutors in the Sergipe state court were seeking information from WhatsApp that the Facebook owned company was unable to provide, presumably access to a user's messages.

In a statement, WhatsApp said it's "disappointed at the decision" after doing the utmost to cooperate.

The decision "punishes more than 100 million users who depend upon us to communicate themselves, run their business and more, just to force us hand over information that we don't have."

This isn't the first time a block on WhatsApp has been ordered in Brazil. On December 15th, a Sao Paulo state judge order the service shutdown for 48 hours after Facebook failed to comply with an order. That shutdown was canceled shortly afterward when another court intervened.

Notably, Judge Marcel Maia Montalvão of Sergipe state is the same judge who ordered a Facebook executive jailed for failing to comply with a block on WhatsApp. The executive was briefly jailed then freed.

More details at the link below...

Brazilian Judge Orders WhatsApp Messenger Blocked for 72 Hours Affecting 100 Million People

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JuergenWest - May 4, 2016 at 6:03am

So.. You're telling me the government of Brasil blocked the entire country from using a product because they wanted to get the information of just a few of its users? Explain how this makes any sense.

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Spawntech - May 4, 2016 at 8:29pm

Prior to this issue the brazilian police wanted to intercept the communications of a mayor drug deal investigation so they asked the cooperation from Whatssap. CEO Mr Z. basically said "I'm protecting everyones privacy, so no..." causing the brazilian government to block Whatssap IP address for 48 hours. This was a huge no no for Mr Z and the entire brazilian population causing an embarrassment to the brazilian government. Now in retaliation with a new case and court order the brazilian government is going after the providers like Vivo, Tim and others which is AT&T, Verizon in USA. If they don't comply the government will sue for R$500,000 ($150,000 USD) per day to each provider.

zed is - May 3, 2016 at 8:42pm

This is the large phone companies in Brazil like oi Tim claro vivo paying the judge, capitalism is alive and well in Brasil the judge just bought a huge farm next to me under a relatives name, judges are not poor or honest any place just ask MJ if you use a vpn like hotspot sheild onava then the block does not work, this is a great chance for vpns in Brazil Brazil is the one of the top 5 markets in the world but it still openly corrupt unlike the first world which hides it corruption under a thick veil of BS Come to Rio see the Olympics but leave your iphone at home and keep your documents in a safety deposit box

Chip - May 3, 2016 at 3:06pm

Nice, that's good news.

JuergenWest - May 4, 2016 at 6:05am

How exactly is this good news? Who benefits from this vs how many are inconvenienced?

stevenlacross - May 3, 2016 at 2:59pm

I'd just wait it out, show the judges that even if they try and punish us, it won't get them what they want, let's be Gandhi and take the punishment and then smile back at them when it comes back online

Robert schwimm - May 3, 2016 at 2:42pm

Banana republic.