In December 2015, Brazilian justice ordered operators to block the Whatsapp for 48 hours due to an investigation linked to criminal faces. Now, shortly after, the measure will be repeated.
According to Folha de S.Paulo in a decision taken on April 26, Judge Marcel Montalvo, of the Lagarto (SE) county, ordered the fixed and mobile telephony operators to block service across the country for 72 hours. The measure start to count from 2 pm this Monday (2/5).
Also according to the newspaper, the five largest operators (TIM, Oi, Vivo, Claro and Nextel) have already received the determination and informed that they will comply with it in case of non-compliance, they will be subject to a daily fine of R $ 500 thousand.
In March, the judge ordered the preventive arrest of Diego Dzodan (vice president of Facebook in Latin America) after the company failed to comply with a court decision in which it should share information exchanged on WhatsApp for suspected drug trafficking (if you don't know, the Facebook acquired WhatsApp in early 2014).
According to G1, the blocking request was requested because Facebook did not comply with this court decision to share information that would subsidize a criminal investigation. The judge believes the precautionary measure based on the Marco Civil da internet. The articles cited by him say that a foreign company is responsible for the payment of a fine by a branch, branch, office or establishment located in the country and that companies that provide services / apps must provide information that allows verification of compliance with the Brazilian legislation regarding collecting, storing, storing or processing data, as well as respecting privacy and confidentiality of communications.
The judge tended to request a precautionary measure from the Federal Police, which was endorsed by the opinion of the Public Ministry.
Also according to leaf, despite the fact that the operators have confirmed that they will comply with the decision, they are still studying whether to file a judicial appeal to try to overturn the blockade because, according to the companies, it is a great inconvenience to make this type of blockade.
And there we go, again
Update · 05/02/2016 s 16:21
The story, of course, is repeating itself.
The verification codes are delayed due to an overload of the SMS Gateway, they are working on it. Wait, your code arrives!
– Telegram Brasil (@telegram_br) May 2, 2016
More than a million new users, and even more waiting to register. (2/2)
– Telegram Brasil (@telegram_br) May 2, 2016
While WhatsApp is blocked, Telegram is attracting more and more users.
Here's WhatsApp's statement on the case via G1:
After cooperating to the full extent of our capacity with Brazilian courts, we are disappointed that a judge in Sergipe has once again decided to order the blocking of WhatsApp in Brazil. This decision punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who depend on our service to communicate, manage their business and more, to force us to deliver information that we have repeatedly stated that we do not have.
At the same time, according to the newspaper THE GLOBE, the Cyber ​​Crimes CPI will be able to approve, tomorrow, a suggestion of a bill that will end this sequence of WhatsApp blocks.
According to the final report by Deputy Esperidio Amim, the block can only be determined by the Judiciary if the website or application is mainly dedicated to sharing illegal content, which is not the case with WhatsApp. The blockade may also only occur in cases related to crimes whose sentences are greater than two years of imprisonment, for example, child pornography, copyright infringement and / or drug trafficking.
Update II · 05/03/2016 s 12:56
Jan Klum (co-founder and executive director of WhatsApp) gave the following statement on Facebook:
Again, millions of innocent Brazilians are being punished because a court wants WhatsApp to provide information that we have repeatedly said we don't have. Not only do we encrypt end-to-end messages on WhatsApp to keep people's information safe and secure, we also don't keep track of chats on our servers. When you send an encrypted message from end to end, no one else can read it, not even us. While we work to unlock WhatsApp as soon as possible, we have no intention of compromising the security of billions of users worldwide.
WhatsApp even came with a writ of mandamus in order to overturn the blockade, however the judge Cezrio Siqueira Neto denied the attack.
The company's lawyers used the proportionality argument, since the measure affects millions of users while the investigated criminals are just a few. This, incidentally, was the same argument used in the penultimate blockade of WhatsApp in Brazil (it was supposed to have lasted 48 hours but ended up lasting “only” 12 hours). The office that represents WhatsApp, however, is already preparing a new appeal.
In order to have an idea of ​​the impact of the WhatsApp blocking, sources in the telecommunications sector reported that the volume of some services offered by operators had a significant increase yesterday after 14 hours. At peak times (in the late afternoon and early evening), SMS usage rose to 45%. Operators also said there was an increase in the number of calls including long-distance calls in the range of 10-20%.
While WhatsApp is down, TIM client has SMS released to continue the chat! #MakeDifferent pic.twitter/XIQNn6MlOK
– TIM Brasil (@TIMBrasil) May 2, 2016
Contrary to the market (and in a marketing move beyond efficient), TIM has released the use of SMS to all its customers, until WhatsApp is unlocked.
(via The globe: 1, 2, 3)
Update III, by Rafael Fischmann · 05/03/2016 s 14:40
Just over 24 hours after the blockade, the judge Ricardo Mcio Santana de Abreu Lima, of the Court of Justice of Sergipe, as well as the federal judge Ali Mazloum, ordered WhatsApp to be released by all national carriers.
The service should start working again little by little.
(via Folha de S.Paulo, State)
Update IV · 05/04/2016 s 13:10
As expected, Mark Zuckerberg spoke a little after the service was re-established:
WhatsApp is now available again in Brazil! You expressed yourself and your voices were heard. I want to thank our community for helping us to resolve this situation.
However, the idea that all Brazilians can have their right to freedom of communication denied in this way is very frightening in a democracy.
You and your friends can help ensure that it never happens again and I hope you will get involved.
Tomorrow, at 6 pm, in Braslia, the newly formed Parliamentary Front for the Free Internet will promote an event that presents bills to avoid blocking internet services like WhatsApp.
If you are Brazilian and support WhatsApp, I want to encourage you to express your opinion.
Share this cause by signing the petio: https://www.change.org/p/bllock-no-a-internet-no-brasil-deve-ser-livre
And attending the event in person tomorrow: https://www.facebook/events/1735225276749706/
The biggest impact you can make by going to Congress at 6 pm, and also participating in the discussion about the importance of connecting people.
Brazilians are among the leaders in the task of connecting the world and creating an open internet for many years. I hope you will express your opinion and demand changes.
#ConectaBrasil #ConecteoMundo
