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.

Comments

Re:"The reason for the order was not known"

[rwiggers]

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...

96% !

[ramriot]

In consideration of:-

1/ the fact that due to massively expensive texting costs that Brazilian carriers place on customers ~96% of them use Whatsapp.

2/ Whatsapp just happens to offer full e2e strong encryption.

3/ Criminals want to save money also.

So criminals use whatsapp to communicate, thus thwarting legal interception.

I would suggest to the Judge that the root problem is not Whatsapp but the government supported telecoms carriers who forced this situation to exist.

Also, seriously Judges. Someone needs to go down there and teach them the meaning of impossible.

Re:"Blocked". What does "blocked" mean in this cas

[thoriumbr]

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.