The Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp was forced to stop its services in Brazil after a judge released a court order. It appears that the judge who issued the order was the one who is asking WhatsApp to release sensitive user data in order to help an ongoing criminal investigation.
Judge Marcel Maia Montalvao ordered network providers operating in Brazil to suspend WhatsApp services in the country for 72 hours. The order was effective as of May 2. It did not take long for the implementation to be felt, and thousands of Brazilians claim that they cannot use the messaging service by noon of that day.
In a statement acquired by the New York Times, a WhatsApp spokesman said, "This decision punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who rely on our services." The spokesman added that WhatsApp had cooperated with Brazilian law enforcers to the fullest extent of their ability in order to aid the investigation.
The order to shut down WhatsApp is the twist in the ongoing investigation in which WhatsApp is embroiled in. The case involves an organized crime and drug trafficking investigation in which a Brazilian court has been asking WhatsApp for aid.
Facebook executive Diego Dzodan was even taken into custody back in March after he refused to comply with the orders of the court to hand over WhatsApp information that are required. It appears that the judge who ordered WhatsApp services to be disrupted recently was the same judge who ordered the arrest of Dzodan.
This is the second time WhatsApp operations were disrupted in Brazil since the start of the year. In December 2015, a judge in Sao Paulo ordered Brazilian telecom carriers to block WhatsApp services for 48 hours after the platform refused to comply with the request to eavesdrop suspected criminals in a separate drug case, according to Gizmondo.
The debate whether law enforcement agencies be allowed to access tech companies' data had been raging on for quite some time. In the United States, tech giant Apple had been wrestling with tons of court orders asking it to help unlock an iPhone used by a terrorist. Apple refused to comply, a decision that leads to a highly publicized debate over privacy and security issues.
As of this writing, WhatsApp services have been fully restored in Brazil