A jurist has shut down WhatApp for three days in Brazil , in an endeavor to make approach to data point from the messaging serve .

The opinion was made by the judge on April 26th , but only became public yesterday when mobile inspection and repair providers in the state were wedge to block the service . The Intercept reportsthat drug user of WhatsApp in Brazil have been unable to send and get messages since 2 promethium local time on Monday good afternoon . The ban is conjecture to last for 72 hour , and service providers will apparently be fined $ 142,000 per 24-hour interval if they do n’t adhere to the opinion . Brazil has a population of 200 million , of which 100 million are WhatsApp user .

Details of the case that ’s bring about the ban are under wrap , but theNew York Times reportsthat it relate to organized crime and drug trafficking . What is known is that the judge is seeking data from WhatsApp , which the company is deny to — or perhaps ca n’t , if it ’s cipher — helping hand over . For its part , WhatsApptold the Timesthat it has help to the “ full extent of [ its ] ability with local tourist court . ”

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

The conclusion to block WhatsApp as a kind of punishment for not handing over data is worrying — but it ’s not the first fourth dimension that Brazil has tried it . Last year , a judge issued a 48 - hour WhatsApp proscription as part of another court suit . An appeal countermand that decision , claiming that the disruption it stimulate was n’t sensible , but only after the service had suffered an outage for a duet of hours .

With WhatsApp now providing remainder - to - last encryption on all of its electronic messaging , it has made itself unable to hand over its exploiter ’ communications to authority . As more criminal cases fall to Margaret Court where substance are cipher in this fashion , we can probably expect similar legal wrangling to occur all around the humans .

Update 5:05 pm : A different judge has overrule the banafter less than 24 hours .

William Duplessie

[ NYT , The Intercept ]

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