Brazil Judge Overturns WhatsApp Suspension

Advertisement
By Associated Press | Updated: 4 May 2016 10:21 IST
A Brazilian judge struck down an earlier court ruling to suspend messaging service WhatsApp in Latin America's biggest country for 72 hours, reactivating it on Tuesday, the day after it was shut down.

The ruling by Judge Ricardo Mucio Santana de Abreu Lima came just hours after another judge upheld an earlier judicial order suspending WhatsApp's services. The application was working again by Tuesday afternoon.

The suspension had gone into effect Monday shortly after it was ordered by Judge Marcel Maia Montalvao, in the northeastern state of Sergipe.

A court official in Sergipe said the suspension was ordered because WhatsApp has repeatedly failed to turn over information about its users for an investigation into drug trafficking and organized crime.

Advertisement

WhatsApp officials have estimated that the service is used by 100 million Brazilians.

Advertisement

"Yet again millions of innocent Brazilians are being punished because a court wants WhatsApp to turn over information we repeatedly said we don't have," the messaging service's CEO and co-founder Jan Koum said on his Facebook page after Montalvao's ruling. "We encrypt messages end-to-end on WhatsApp to keep people's information safe and secure, we also don't keep your chat history on our servers."

"We have no intention of compromising the security of our billion users around the world," he added.

Advertisement

Montalvao's suspension was the latest chapter in a dispute between Brazilian law enforcement and Facebook, which bought WhatsApp in 2014.

Calls to Facebook's offices in Sao Paulo went unanswered on Tuesday.

Advertisement

In March, Facebook's most senior representative in Latin America was detained in Sao Paulo and held overnight.

At the time, a spokeswoman for federal police in Sergipe, Monica Horta, said investigators had requested content from a WhatsApp messaging group as well as other data, including geolocation. Investigators first contacted WhatsApp several months earlier but hadn't received a response, Horta said.

Brazilian authorities also clashed with Facebook in December, when a judicial order forced telecoms to block WhatsApp for about 12 hours over its alleged refusal to cooperate with a police inquiry.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the time said he was "stunned" by the "extreme decision.

 

Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.

Further reading: Apps, Social, WhatsApp
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Samsung Galaxy M17e 5G India Launch Set for March 17: Features
  2. Poco X8 Pro, Poco X8 Pro Max to Launch on This Date
  3. MacBook Neo vs MacBook Air (2025): Price in India and Features Compared
  4. Here's When the Lava Bold 2 5G Will Launch in India
  5. OnePlus 15T Official Images Confirm 'Squircle' Camera, Two Colourways
  6. SanDisk Extreme Fit USB Type-C Flash Drive Launched in India at This Price
  7. Realme Note 80 Debuts With a 6,300mAh Battery, 6,74-Inch Screen: See Price
  8. Tim Cook Reveals the Secret Behind Apple's Success, Says Can't Be Replicated
  1. NASA’s Webb Telescope Confirms Asteroid 2024 YR4 Will Safely Pass the Moon in 2032
  2. ChatGPT Adult Mode Delayed Again as OpenAI's 'Code Red' Reportedly Ends
  3. Lava Bold 2 5G India Launch Date Announced; Confirmed to Feature Under-Display Fingerprint Scanner
  4. Realme Note 80 Launched With 6,300mAh Battery, 6.74-Inch Display: Price, Specifications
  5. Anthropic’s Claude Finds 22 Vulnerabilities in Mozilla Firefox in Just Two Weeks
  6. Samsung Galaxy Smartphones Get Inactivity Restart Security Feature With Latest Update: Report
  7. Poco C85x 5G Key Specifications, Features Revealed a Day Ahead of Launch in India
  8. Rooster Now Available for Streaming Online: What You Need to Know About its Plot, Cast, and More
  9. Bhartha Mahasayulaku Wignyapthi OTT Release Date Reportedly Revealed: When and Where to Watch Ravi Teja’s Romantic Drama Online?
  10. Ghost Elephants Out on OTT: Know Where to Watch This Biographical Film Online
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2026. All rights reserved.