Brazil bans Whats App for 2 Days

December 17 2015 - In News

A Brazilian Judge deceided to blackout Whats App for 48 hours, starting at midnight on Thursday, local time. The court of Sao Paulo initiated the blockade on the service, telling Brazil's telecoms companies to stop the use of the country's most popular messaging app. This effects also users in Venezuela and Chile, in particular those on the Movistar telco network.

According to the Telegraph.co.uk the Sao Paolo court decided to give the fixed penalty of the two-days nation-wide blocking "Because WhatsApp did not respond to a court order of July 23, 2015, on August 7, 2015, the company was again notified, with there being a fixed penalty in case of non-compliance. As yet the company did not attend the court order, the prosecution requested the blocking of services for a period of 48 hours, based on the law […], which was granted by Judge Sandra Regina Nostre Marques.”

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, whose company owns WhatsApp, more than 100 million Brazilians access the service, which is the single most-used app nationally.

The blocking is contradictive with Brazil positioning itself as a champion of net neutrality just a few years ago, passing a landmark internet "Bill of Rights"approved by President Dilma  which promises to protect digital free speech, net neutrality and privacy on the web.

The Whatsapp ban has already shown major benefits for chat competitors.