Blocked Whatsapp unblocked in Brazil

Federal Supreme Court in Brazil overturns judge’s order to mobile phone companies to block access after owner Facebook refused to intercept texts  for police enquiry.

Judge’s earlier ruling ordering mobile phone companies to indefinitely block access to Facebook’s WhatsApp – the third such block in the last eight months.

WhatsApp is popular phone messaging app in Brazil. The Rio de Janeiro judge Daniela Barbosa ruled that access to the application should be blocked immediately because WhatsApp’ s owner, Facebook, had shown “ total disrespect for Brazilian law. Facebook was repeatedly asked to intercept messages sent through the service to help in  a criminal investigation in the city of Caxias outside Rio.”

Her ruling was reversed hours later by Supreme Court President Ricardo Lewandowski, who said it seemed “Scarcely reasonable or proportional.”

Back in February 2016, a judge from north-eastern state of Alagoas did a similar ruling in a separate investigation, but there too the order was overturned hours later.

Whatsapp was also blocked in Sao Paulo in December 2015 and subsequently lifted the restrictions on the grounds that it does not seem reasonable that millions of users are affected because of the company’s wrongdoing.