On February 11, Judge Luiz de Moura Correia ordered that WhatsApp be blocked in Brazil due to the company’s failure to provide data for an ongoing investigation in a child pornography case. Correia first asked for the company’s cooperation back in 2013. Two years later, still lacking the company’s cooperation, Correia finally ordered that WhatsApp be blocked in the whole country. While many understand Correia’s intentions, they feel his decision to block the app for its roughly 45 million Brazilian users was extreme.
Many legal jurists feel that completely banning WhatsApp in Brazil went too far, notwithstanding the fact that Correia’s ruling does comply with Brazilian law, which requires Internet applications like WhatsApp to provide information such as what was requested in the investigation.
The good news for WhatsApp users is that although Correia ordered the app be blocked in the country in mid-February, it is still available due to several lawyers appealing the court order. And on February 26, a higher court threw out Correia’s order. Because the decision cannot be further appealed, WhatsApp will continue to be available in Brazil.
This ruling, however, does not mean that WhatsApp is forever safe from being blocked in Brazil. Alessandro Barreto, one of the police officers involved with the original investigation, has said that his team will continue to fight for the blockage of WhatsApp. He cited the company’s failure to cooperate in a variety of other cases as the reason behind his continued attempt at blocking the app.
Because of the uncertainty of WhatsApp’s future in Brazil, many people are looking for alternatives. The afternoon prior to the higher court’s decision to throw out Correia’s order, Telegram, another messaging app, reported that they had received 2 million new signups from Brazil in 20 hours. That works out to 100 new users per second.
No matter how WhatsApp’s future turns out in Brazil, the case has caused some to contemplate whose rights are most important in cases such as this – the company, the users, or the children.
