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Brazil Judge Orders Phone Carriers To Block WhatsApp Message App (reuters.com)
A Brazilian judge has ordered wireless phone carriers to block access to Facebook's WhatsApp indefinitely, starting on Tuesday, the third such incident against the popular phone messaging app in eight months. Reuters report: The decision by Judge Daniela Barbosa Assuncao de Souza in the southeastern state of Rio de Janeiro applies to Brazil's five wireless carriers. The reason for the order was not known due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case, and will only be lifted once Facebook surrenders data, Souza's office said. Sao Paulo-based representatives at WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, as well as the Brazilian five carriers -- Telefonica Brasil SA, America Movil SAB's Claro, TIM Participacoes SA, Oi SA and Nextel Participacoes SA.
Indeed. From http://convergenciadigital.uol... "More than that, the judge considers that if it is not possible to break the encryption, the service itself must be prohibited, since it does not lend itself to the enforcement of judicial decisions."
From a Brazilian news, the order was to offer a backdoor to the encrypted messages and/or to redirect the messages to the authorities before encryption.
http://tecnologia.uol.com.br/n...
The reason for the order was not known due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case
That's strange, because I know what the article author claims not to know. Brazil wants information that they can't legally get. So they are (illegally) forcing a shut down of Whatsapp to put pressure on Facebook to try to get the information. If that works Watsapp will be turned on again. If it doesn't work and there isn't a lot of blow back from the population, then Facebook itself may be next, but in reality they expect that shutting down Facebook would draw too much attention to their tactics so it is unlikely to occur.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
All telecom carriers on Brazil must block access to WhatsApp servers. 3G/4G, and cable are affected. The only Brazilian users still with WhatsApp access are those using a proxy or VPN server outside Brazil. Like me.
This link - http://exame.abril.com.br/tecn... - (In portuguese) - Has way more information about this issue. Some interesting points from it: -Suspension will occur because Facebook didn't provide messages for an investigation still underway. -The judge says that Facebook responded the request in English, not an official language in Brazil. -Important: THE REQUESTS ARE ONLY FOR FUTURE MESSAGES. (Justice seeks only to obtain copies of future messages of the investigated). -The company argues that providing the messages will make its users lose faith in the app. The Judge calls it BS: Phones are recorded all the time and people didn't lose faith / stopped using their telecom providers. -There is a fine of ~15K USD/day until the order is followed.