Brazilian Judge Lifts WhatsApp Ban

By Will Connors

RIO DE JANEIRO -- A Brazilian judge overturned a ban on Facebook Inc.'s WhatsApp in Brazil on Tuesday, restoring service to the millions of Brazilians who use the messaging app about 24 hours after a different judge blocked it.

The ban, which began Monday afternoon, was the latest in a series of clashes between the technology giant and the Brazilian government.

A judge in the state of Sergipe on Monday ordered the service to be shut down for 72 hours for the company's refusal to cooperate in a criminal investigation. WhatsApp says it doesn't store users' messages and thus cannot share what it doesn't have.

On Tuesday, a different judge in a Sergipe appeals court overturned the ban, and service was restored Tuesday afternoon.

Brazilian judges, who wield considerable power, have taken to shutting down the popular messaging app when disputes of this nature arise.

In December, a different judge blocked WhatsApp throughout the country similar reasons. That ban was reversed after less than 48 hours.

In March, Brazilian federal police briefly detained the vice president of Facebook's Latin America operations, Diego Dzodan, for not complying with police requests to access WhatsApp messages linked to an organized-crime and drug-trafficking case.

Monday's order was part of the same process that resulted in the executive's arrest.

Roughly half of Brazil's 200 million people use Whatsapp's free text and voice-messaging functions regularly, according to Facebook.

Write to Will Connors at william.connors@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2016 15:33 ET (19:33 GMT)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024