WhatsApp blocked in Brazil, again

Even so, a short term ban for a messaging service counting such a large number of users (half of Brazil’s population) has the potential to significantly disrupt communication and user sentiment in a country gearing up to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The world’s most popular messaging app has just been blocked by a top judge in the country after its owners, Facebook, stood by a refusal to intercept texts for a police investigation.

“WhatsApp is blocked across the whole national territory”, a spokesman told AFP.

According to the judge, Facebook refused to abide by a judicial order after receiving three notifications to turn over to the courts copies of the messages exchanged among people who are not the targets of secret investigations. “Indiscriminate steps like these threaten people’s ability to communicate, to run their businesses, and to live their lives”, the company said in a statement.

The order directs Brazil’s fire wireless networks to not carry any data for WhatsApp. The court after rejecting an initial appeal, upheld the second appeal.

It was at least the third such ruling against WhatsApp this year in Brazil. As we’ve said in the past, we can not share information we don’t have access to. At the time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urged ordinary Brazilians to protest laws allowing restrictions on Internet services, Reuters reported at the time.

Brazil is one of WhatsApp’s leading global markets, with almost 100 million users estimated in the country, including numerous nation’s doctors, who use the service to talk to their patients.

She also harshly criticized Facebook for responding to the Brazilian police requests with a list of questions demanding more information that were presented in English, treating Brazil “like some small republic”.

The judge said those mourning loss of WhatsApp “should remember that the main victim of the crimes being investigated is society itself, with the certainty that all the time new victims are being created and new crimes are being committed while the judiciary is unable to stop the incidents or punish those responsible”.