Brazilian Court Blocks WhatsApp Again, Other Messaging Apps Benefit
Facebook-owned instant messaging app, WhatApp, has been banned from Brazil for the second time due to data dispute. The ban has led to spikes in users and downloads of other messaging apps like Telegram.
A judge in Sergipe ordered WhatsApp to be blocked in the country for 72 hours after the company refused to comply to a court order. The court wanted the company to turn over information to be used in a criminal investigation. However, WhatsApp, which has more than 100 million users in Brazil, has insisted that they don't have the data the court needs. Carriers who transmit WhatsApp data during the blackout period will be fined 500,000 reals (about $140,000).
"After cooperating to the full extent of our ability with the local courts, we are disappointed a judge in Sergipe decided yet again to order the block of WhatsApp in Brazil," WhatsApp said in an emailed statement. "This decision punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who rely on our service to communicate, run their businesses, and more, in order to force us to turn over information we repeatedly said we don't have."
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Following the ban, WhatsApp competitors Telegram and iMessage trended on Twitter in Brazil. The former reported a crash in their registration systems due to the more than one million new users who signed up. The same scenario happened in December when WhatsApp was first blocked in the country. Telegram said six million users registered during that time.
WhatsApp is Brazil's most popular chat platform, with about 90 percent of Android devices in the country having the app installed compared to less than 20 percent for Telegram, according to Quartz. Data collection firm SimilarWeb says Brazilian WhatsApp users spend around an hour a day, on average, in the app, which is longer than they do in Facebook Messenger, the second most popular chat app in the country.
