Slashdot Mirror
WhatsApp Blocked in Brazil for 72 Hours Over Data Dispute (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader cites an article on TechCrunch: WhatsApp, Facebook's messaging service that recently rolled out end-to-end encryption to its users, will be blocked in Brazil for 72 hours, starting this afternoon. A Brazilian judge ordered telecom providers in the country to block WhatsApp today in a dispute over access to encrypted data. Judge Marcel Montalvao has ordered WhatsApp to turn over chat records related to a drug investigation, but WhatsApp has argued that it cannot access the chats in an unencrypted form and therefore cannot provide the required records to the court. [...] This isn't Montalvao's first clash with WhatsApp, which boasts more than 100 million Brazilian users. The judge ordered the arrest of Facebook's vice president for Latin America, Diego Dzodan, in March. Facebook has said that WhatsApp operates with relative independence and that Dzodan has no control over WhatsApp data.American lawyer and journalist Glenn Greenwald said: "WhatsApp shut down again in Brazil as of 1 pm ET today: used by 100m people, 91% of those online: all from 1 judge."
people trust facebook for privacy?!!
What does this have to do with "outside their own country"?
The trouble with most stories of government attempts at grabbing data and hindering those who try to protect the individual is that it is generally seen as "someone else's problem". This means that politicians can ignore those who it affects and continue eroding freedoms. If it affects a large proportion of the population then some aspiring politicos will see it as one way of getting up the electoral greasy pole; if (and a big "if") they keep their promises when elected we could see legislation to curtail the likes of Judge Marcel Montalvao. I certainly hope that this happens, it might make politicians in the USA and Europe think twice before they grab more privacy from us.
"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Supposedly Thomas Jefferson
... there are international laws against all kinds of crap, so why the fuck is there none agains stupid judges who feel their world-view is relevant outside their own country...
The judge is based in Brazil. The block is restricted to WhatsApp's activities within Brazil; nowhere else.
What point are you trying to make?
(Disclaimer; picking fault with apparently half-baked or ill-thought out arguments doesn't mean I agree with the judge's decision. I shouldn't have to explain that in advance, but I know there'll always be at least one halfwit who doesn't understand this.)
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Someone just needs to post the Judge's home address and let those users show up at his door.
Internet Tough Guy likes the idea of mob justice when he's comfortably behind his computer and only has to imagine the scenarios where this plays out in his favour.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
He is saying that if the company does not comply with his orders, it cannot do business within his jurisdiction.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Well, one point to be made is that it is too easy to block the ability to communicate on the internet. Domestic or otherwise, I am very interested in rendering the state, or anybody else, absolutely powerless in that regard, and in seeing the discussion revolve around how to do it, instead of whether we should. Start with overcoming the greatest single point of failure we are all under, the Internet Service Provider. Once we are past that obstacle, the state will lose a great deal of its advantage.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The problem is that this is not about the law, it's about judiciary doing whatever they want (and maybe not understanding the meaning of the law).
The law is pretty clear for us:
CHAPTER III PROVISION OF CONNECTION AND INTERNET APPLICATIONS
Section I
Of the Network Neutrality
Art. 9 - The party responsible for the transmission, switching ou routing has the duty to process, on an isonomic basis, any data packages, regardless of content, origin and destination, service, terminal or application.
(...)
Paragraph 3 - When providing Internet connectivity, free or at a cost, as well as, in the transmission, switching or routing, it is prohibited to block, monitor, filter or analyze the content of data packets, in compliance with this article.
The judge ordered the internet providers to block Whatsapp, witch is only possible through violation of the law (and not for Whatsapp to stop working, that order would actually be legal).
The other time this illegal order was given, a higher court overruled it based on public interest, not on net neutrality grounds. I bet the same will happen again. Judges are routinely stepping over the law in Brazil, they like to have that power.
I cannot sue the judge for violating my rights, I can sue the government. If I sue, a judge will evaluate my damages (and he/she will say it was nothing if there were no lost businesses), and order the state to compensate me with our tax money, carefully so that I don't have "illicit enrichment".
I work in the judiciary, and I talked to my judge about the subject the other time this shit happened. Legally that's our situation down here. He clearly though the order was abusive the other time, but also based on public interest. It was a little hard to explain to him the meaning of net neutrality and the above article in our law.
The problem is that the law is pretty clear:
Art. 9 - The party responsible for the transmission, switching ou routing has the duty to process, on an isonomic basis, any data packages, regardless of content, origin and destination, service, terminal or application.
(...)
Paragraph 3 - When providing Internet connectivity, free or at a cost, as well as, in the transmission, switching or routing, it is prohibited to block, monitor, filter or analyze the content of data packets, in compliance with this article.
The judge ordered the internet providers to block Whatsapp, witch is only possible through violation of the law. He choose to ignore part of the law and use other parts to give the order.