Facebook CEO calls WhatsApp suspension ‘sad day for Brazil’

On Wednesday, after detecting WhatsApp in constant disobedience, Judge Sandra Regina Nostre Marques placed an order to shut down the service for 48 hours under terms of the nation’s Internet statute law, the statement added. The court said that the decision was made amid a criminal procedure, but didn’t provide more details, saying the case is under seal.

Facebook says the order blocks more than 100 million users. The survey showed 93 percent of the 2,000 people researched said they use the messaging service. “Brazilians have dependably been among the most energetic in sharing their voice online”, Zuckerberg in a composed on his Facebook page in both English and Portuguese.

Popular messaging app owned by Facebook, WhatsApp, has been banned in Brazil for two days.

He said: “This is a sad day for Brazil”. The Facebook founder expressed his concern after the news of Whatsapp blocked in Brazil became big.

Within hours of the suspension being coming into force, the hashtag #Nessas48HorasEuVou (#Inthese48hoursIwill) began trending on Twitter, with Brazilians joking about all the things they would do during the suspension.

One Brazilian television network, SPTV, said the shutdown happened after the smartphone app service failed to hand over communications linked to a probe into a gang that used the service to commit bank and ATM robberies.

According to Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the order was handed down from the 1st Criminal Court of São Bernardo do Campo in São Paulo, Brazil, due to an unnamed petitioner seeking an injunction against the company.

He urged people to use Facebook Messenger in the meantime.

Judge Souza said it was “not reasonable that millions of users be affected by the inertia of the company”.

According to Zuckerberg, the case was related to protecting customers’ data.

The order highlights simmering tensions between Brazilian phone companies and WhatsApp.

Brazil’s telecom operators have spent the last few months trying to convince the government that WhatsApp’s voice service is unregulated and illegal.