The WhatsApp ban in Brazil only lasted a few hours

The court ordered Brazilian carriers to block WhatsApp after the latter refused to comply with a court order requesting information.

Brazil court lifts ban on WhatsApp: 100 million WhatsApp users can now access the service in Brazil as Brazilian judge on Thursday ordered the lifting of a 48-hour suspension of the services in Brazil of Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp instant messaging application, overturning a lower court ruling.

WhatsApp has 100m personal users in Brazil so it resulted in a sort of outrage after its text message and Internet telephone services were interrupted.

According to Reuters, the drug group was identified as the PCC or the First Command of the Capital, which allegedly used WhatsApp to commit crimes in the area of San Bernardo de Campo, a municipality of Sao Paulo.

Whatsapp, the Facebook-owned popular phone messaging service, is back online after a temporary shutdown that went into effect at midnight Wednesday. However, the judge recommended a higher fine on the U.S. firm.

But the same report mentioned that the incident has put focus on “growing global tensions between technology companies’ privacy concerns and national authorities’ efforts to use social media to recover information on possible criminal activities”.

The ban also led to the service being interrupted for users in Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he was “stunned” by Brazil’s decision to block WhatsApp and is “working hard to get [the] block reversed”. While the shutdown lasted only half a day, WhatsApp competitor Telegram sent out a tweet stating that it was downloaded on 1 million devices in Brazil yesterday. “Brazilians have always been among the most passionate in sharing their voice online”, Zuckerberg wrote. Other regions were apparently affected by the ban. The banning of WhatsApp in Brazil gave a rival messaging app a chance to add new subscribes.