Brasilia: On Monday, a
Brazilian court has blocked
WhatsApp service for 72 hours, angering millions of Brazilians who found
themselves without the popular WhatsApp smartphone messaging application for
the second time in six months.
The court order from Judge Marcel
Montalvao in the northeastern town of Lagarto, in Sergipe state, shut down
WhatsApp from 2:00 PM (1700 GMT). According to Brazilian media reports, drug
traffickers targeted in the investigation had been using WhatsApp to discuss
their business. It is the latest standoff between the Brazilian authorities and
Facebook, which has said it has no technical means for cooperating with such
requests.
Facebook’s vice president for
Latin America, Diego Dzodan, was arrested in March over the same case. Police
said they were holding the Argentine national responsible for “repeated
non-compliance with court orders.”Another judge in Sergipe state ordered his
release the following day, ruling the arrest amounted to “unlawful coercion.”
WhatsApp was previously suspended
in Brazil in December over another case. Shocked, cranky Brazilians woke up on
December 17 to find their WhatsApp service had been shut down overnight,
leaving many without a key means of communication.
WhatsApp is widely used in Brazil,
where cell phone fees for texting and calls are among the highest in the world.
The free app is installed on nine in 10 smartphones in the country. The
December blackout ended after about 12 hours, when a higher court in Sao Paulo
state threw out the two-day suspension.
On that occasion, Facebook chief
Mark Zuckerberg called it “a sad day for Brazil”, noting the country’s history
of support for an open Internet.
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