Brazil temporarily shuts down WhatsApp after court order

Brazil shut down WhatsApp for 72 hours throughout the whole country, after a court order from a judge who is seeking user data for a criminal investigation. A WhatsApp spokesman responded that ‘this decision punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who rely on our services,’ despite WhatsApp’s cooperation with authorities ‘to the full extent of our ability.’ An earlier judgment banned WhatsApp in Brazil for 48 hours in December, when a judged ruled that the service failed to comply with policy requests. This decision was later overturned by an appeals court.