A Brazilian judge has ordered the nationwide blackout of the messaging service, WhatsApp. This will be the third time in eight months.
Though the other two times were temporary blackouts in December and May, this one is indefinite. It is expected to be in force until the company complies with a previously issued request for WhatsApp messages related to an ongoing investigation. BBC reports that WhatsApp also faces fines of 50,000 reais (£11,700; $15,300) per day until it complies with the judicial order.
Apparently WhatsApp failed to hand over information requested in a criminal investigation.
“The order was not complied with, despite being issued three times,” said Judge Daniela Barbosa de Souza in her Rio de Janeiro court, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo news website (in Portuguese), “thus requiring the adoption of coercive measures determined by this judgement.”
WhatsApp CEO and co-founder, Jan Koum reacted on his Facebook page, saying:
We’re working to get WhatsApp back online in Brazil. It’s shocking that less than two months after Brazilian people and lawmakers loudly rejected blocks of services like WhatsApp, history is repeating itself. As before, millions of people are cut off from friends, loved ones, customers, and colleagues today, simply because we are being asked for information we don’t have.
The order is expected to happen once Brazil’s five mobile phone companies are notified.
