WhatsApp service restored in Brazil By AFP

The popular WhatsApp smartphone messaging
application came back to life Thursday in Brazil
as a court threw out a two-day suspension that
had infuriated millions of users.
Brazilians had woken up shocked and cranky
because of the order issued Wednesday night by
a judge.
That judge acted because the Facebook-owned
service failed to disclose information requested
by prosecutors as part of a criminal investigation.
The free service is widely used in Brazil where
cell phone tariffs for texting and calls are among
the highest in the world. The app is installed in
nine in 10 smartphones in the country.
It was to have remain suspended until midnight
Friday. But in the end, the cut-off lasted around
12 hours as a court in Sao Paulo overturned the
judge’s order.
“Because of constitutional principles, it is not
reasonable that millions of users be affected,” the
Sao Paolo court overseen by judge Xavier de
Souza wrote.
Authorities said they could not disclose details of
the probe that triggered the original ban because
it is an ongoing case.
Many saw the complaint against WhatsApp as
being driven by Brazil’s telecoms companies
trying to preserve their high-margin cell phone
rates from competition from the free app.
But one television network, SPTV, said the judicial
pressure on WhatsApp stemmed from an
investigation into a gang that used it to commit
bank and ATM robberies.
Brazilian service providers had received the
judge’s order and had no choice but to comply,
Eduardo Levy, chairman of Brazil’s association of
cellphone service providers, told the G1 website
Thursday morning while the suspension was still
in effect.
At least one of the four major providers has
appealed the order, arguing the suspension
affected millions of people out of the blue.
“This hurts consumers, and overnight it affected
millions of users. There was not even time to
issue a statement to customers. They are going to
think the problem is with their service provider,”
Levy said.
– Life without WhatsApp –
Like people just about everywhere, Brazilians are
addicted to their cellphones and WhatsApp is the
go-to way to send texts, video and photos.
Twitter positively lit up with messages about the
shutdown.
One of the trending topics read
#Nessas48HorasEuVou, which translates as “Over
the next 48 hours I am going to…”
One user said they were going to binge-watch
movies “before some judge has the bright idea of
shutting down Netflix.”
“I am going to sit down and cry,” someone else
wrote on Twitter.
Before the service was restored Facebook chief
Mark Zuckerberg said “we are working hard to
get this block reversed.”
“This is a sad day for Brazil,” he said, noting the
country’s history of support for an open Internet.
“I am stunned that our efforts to protect people’s
data would result in such an extreme decision by
a single judge to punish every person in Brazil
who uses WhatsApp.”
A Sao Paulo state court said WhatsApp had been
asked several times to cooperate in the criminal
investigation, but had repeatedly failed to
comply, exposing it to a fine and the ban.
Instant messaging service Telegram, backed by
Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, said it had
registered some 1.5 million new users in several
hours due to the blockage.
Another Brazilian writing on Twitter was more
sanguine about life without WhatsApp for a
couple of days.
This person recalled living through the so-called
Y2K problem, or Millennium bug, when there
were fears of global chaos as computers designed
in the 20th century began digesting the number
2000.
“I survived the end of the world in 2000, and I
went 12 years before signing up to WhatsApp. So
don’t anyone think I am going to go mad now.”