Stanford CIS

Whatsapp at Risk of Suspension of Services in Brazil

By Felipe Busnello on

A few weeks ago, a judge of the state of Piauí, in Brazil, ordered Whatsapp to suspend its activities in the country. The judge has also issued orders for the suspension of the service to all telecommunication service providers, compelling them to enforce the measure, considering the service has no representation in Brazil. As the case pertains to the sharing of child pornography through the network, its details are classified.The order became known only last Wednesday, when its content was leaked to the media. Since it became public, it has caused an uproar in social network services. Telegram Messenger, a competitor of Whatsapp, stated through twitter in the day of the disclosure of the order that they had completed "2 million new signups from Brazil in the last 20 hours", and were then "signing up 100 new users per second."On the day following its disclosure to the public, Thursday, the decision was reversed by the judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of Piauí in charge of the appeal. This decision can be challenged.The services have not been interrupted at any point.

Felipe Octaviano Delgado Busnello is a qualified Brazilian attorney active in the field of internet and intellectual property law. He can be reached at felipe.busnello at gmail.com.