Brazilian Judge Daniela Barbosa Assunção de Souza has imposed an indefinite suspension of Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp after it failed to cooperate in a criminal investigation. Reuters reports that it’s the third such incident involving the phone-messaging app since December.
The judge said the order, affecting more than 100 million users in Brazil, will be lifted once Facebook surrenders data. But she withheld details of the confidential case.
Reuters reported that WhatsApp stood by its defense that encrypted messages sent over the app are not stored on its servers, “an argument that has won out on appeal, quickly reversing recent blockages that still show the vast discretionary power of Brazil’s lower courts.” Some wonder if it involves political corruption.
“As we’ve said in the past, we cannot share information we don’t have access to. We hope to see this block lifted as soon as possible,” said a WhatsApp spokesperson.
“The office of Brazil’s attorney general reiterated its position that judges who suspend WhatsApp are incorrectly interpreting a 2014 law meant to provide a legal framework for the Internet.”
“Still, that guidance has not stopped judges frustrated with the modern limits of wiretaps in drug-trafficking investigations from going after the service and even briefly jailing a senior Facebook executive in March.”
To read the Reuters story, please hit this link.