Brazil is in the midst of a
WhatsApp blackout, after a court in the country ordered access to the messaging
service blocked for 48 hours, starting at midnight on Thursday, local time. A
judge in the city of Sao Paulo initiated the blockade on the service, telling
Brazil's telecoms companies to stop the use of the country's most popular
messaging app, but did not divulge the name of the company or individual responsible
for the injunction.
Brazilian telecommunications
companies have attempted to halt the stratospheric growth of WhatsApp in the
country before, arguing to the government that the messaging app's free calling
option is unregulated and illegal, and blaming the service for a marked
decrease in people picking up cellphone contracts. Earlier this year, Amos
Genish, president of Brazilian telecoms firm Vivo, called WhatsApp "pure
piracy," specifying that the service used phone numbers that
"belonged" to cellphone providers like his. Until now Brazilian
companies have been unsuccessful in their quest to regulate WhatsApp, but
today's shutdown may be the beginning of a change of approach from the
country's government.
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