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Brazil Restores WhatsApp Service After Brief Blockade Over Facebook Case Brazil Restores WhatsApp Service After Brief Blockade Over Wiretap Request
(about 2 hours later)
Brazil briefly shut down WhatsApp, a popular instant-messaging service owned by Facebook, on Thursday by court order in a case shrouded in secrecy. WhatsApp, a popular instant messaging service owned by Facebook, was briefly shut down in Brazil on Thursday after the American company refused to place wiretaps on certain WhatsApp accounts.
The blockade, which went into effect at midnight, was ordered for 48 hours by a judge in São Paulo after Facebook defied orders to turn over data in a criminal court proceeding there. Details of the case were sealed. A São Paulo judge ordered the country’s telecommunications carriers to block WhatsApp for 48 hours, beginning Thursday, after the company failed to comply with the eavesdropping requests, which came as part of a criminal case.
But the shut down was quickly overturned on Thursday morning by an appeals court. It ruled that it was “unreasonable” to suspend a service used by millions of people because the company had failed to provide information to the courts. But shortly after the ban went into effect, a Brazilian appeals court overturned it, restoring access for the approximately 100 million Brazilians who regularly send messages on the service.
WhatsApp has about 100 million users in Brazil and is a fixture on most smartphones. The app allows users to send text messages and make voice calls for free, making it an attractive alternative to Brazil’s pricey cellular services. The appeals court said it was “not reasonable” to suspend a service used by so many people simply because the company had failed to provide information to the courts.
Foreign governments have become increasingly willing to block American Internet services as part of legal disputes. Turkey has cut off Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google, in the past for failing to take down content that the government found objectionable.
Last month, Bangladesh temporarily banned Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber, another messaging and phone service, citing a need to preserve order after a Supreme Court ruling upholding the death penalty for two men convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
In the Brazilian case, a Facebook spokesman, Matt Steinfeld, said the company was unable to put the wiretaps in place because of the technological structure of WhatsApp. The service, like many of its competitors, encrypts messages along the entire pathway between the sender and recipient. That prevents anyone, including WhatsApp, from eavesdropping, he said.
“We’re disappointed that a judge would punish more than 100 million people across Brazil since we were unable to turn over information we didn’t have,” Mr. Steinfeld said.
WhatsApp, which is used by about half of Brazil’s 200 million residents, allows smartphone users with a data connection to send text messages and make voice calls for free. That makes it an attractive alternative to Brazil’s pricey cellphone services.
Brazilian telecom executives, worried about the hit to their business, have stepped up criticism of WhatsApp and similar services in recent months.
Amos Genish, the president of Vivo, owned by Telefonica, recently called WhatsApp a “pirate” and said the government should create regulations for such services, according to the Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico.
This year, Brazilian judges twice ordered the suspension of WhatsApp service, but the telecom operators complained that the suspensions were impossible to carry out and appeals courts blocked the orders before they went into effect.
This time, only one company, Oi, filed an appeal. The others, including Telefonica, complied.
“The change in position is significant,” said Ronaldo Lemos, head of the Institute of Technology and Society in Rio de Janeiro. “They seem to be washing their hands” of WhatsApp.
Many of the details surrounding the case were sealed by the court. But according to one Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo, the Brazilian military police were investigating drug trafficking involving a major criminal gang and so sought to intercept data.
The leaders of the gang were thought to be using instant messaging apps like WhatsApp much more than their cellular messaging services, so the police went to the judge requesting that the data of three WhatsApp users, one Brazilian and two Paraguayans, be intercepted, the newspaper reported.
The judge initially ordered Facebook to provide the data. When it did not comply with that order, she then decided to shut down the entire service nationwide.
Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said it was a “sad day” for Brazil.Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said it was a “sad day” for Brazil.
“Until today, Brazil has been an ally in creating an open Internet,” he wrote in a Facebook post in English and Portuguese. “I am stunned that our efforts to protect people’s data would result in such an extreme decision by a single judge to punish every person in Brazil who uses WhatsApp.”“Until today, Brazil has been an ally in creating an open Internet,” he wrote in a Facebook post in English and Portuguese. “I am stunned that our efforts to protect people’s data would result in such an extreme decision by a single judge to punish every person in Brazil who uses WhatsApp.”
Foreign governments have become increasingly willing to block American Internet services as part of legal disputes. Turkey, for example, has cut off Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google, in the past for failing to take down content that the government found objectionable. Mr. Zuckerberg urged Brazilians to press their government to overturn the ban.
Mr. Zuckerberg urged Brazilians to press their government to overturn the ban. He also encouraged them to use Facebook’s other instant-messaging service, Messenger, as an alternative. When the service was restored, he wrote, “Your voices have been heard and the block has been lifted.”