Tech Trend 247

Facebook's WhatsApp has been blocked in Brazil for 72 hours, following a judge's ruling.

The ban, which went into effect at 2 p.m. local time, is the second time in less than six months that a Brazilian court has blocked the popular messaging app in the country.

The ban, once again, stems from WhatsApp's "failing to turn over data in a criminal investigation," Bloomberg reports. 

“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 a statement provided to Bloomberg. 

“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.”

Monday's ruling was the second time that Facebook's messaging service has faced legal challenges in Brazil. WhatsApp was temporarily banned last December following a similar ruling. The service was reinstated soon after, but not before Brazilian WhatsApp users flocked to rival service Telegram. 

It appears Telegram is seeing a similar influx of users following the most recent ban. The service has already seen more than a million new signups since Monday's ruling, according to the company.

WhatsApp's legal woes come amid a bigger debate around the role tech companies should play in protecting user privacy. WhatsApp founder Jan Koum has been particularly bullish on the need for strong encryption and recently announced the app supports end-to-end encryption on all platforms.

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