All Wireless phone carriers in Brazil were ordered to block access to Facebook WhatsApp for 72 hours throughout Latin America’s largest country. This was the second such move against the popular messaging application experienced in the last five months. This decision of the judge in the northeastern state of Sergipe also applies to the five main wireless operators in Brazil and affects more than 100 million users of WhatsApp in the country. Due to legal secrecy, in an ongoing case in the Sergipe state court the reason for the order is not known.
In its statement, WhatsApp comented that the company is disappointed at the decision, as they have provided maximum cooperation with Brazilian tribunals. They say that the decision punishes more than 100 million users who depend upon us to communicate themselves, run their business and more, just to force us hand over information that we don’t have.
For the second time since mid-December the text message and internet voice telephone service for smartphones has been the target due to a blocking order. On December 15 a São Paulo state judge had ordered that the service will have to be shut down for 48 hours .This took place after Facebook failed to comply with an order. Though soon afterward another court interrupted that suspension order.
Judge Marcel Maia Montalvão of Sergipe state is the same judge who had ordered in March the imprisonment of a Brazil-based Facebook executive as he had failed to comply with an attempted block on WhatsApp.Later he was jailed and subsequently freed. The Executives of the five carriers – Telefonica Brasil SA, América Móvil SAB’s Claro, TIM Participações SA, Oi SA and Nextel Participações SA failed to give an immediate comment.
