The suspension of the courier was determined by refusing to cooperate with a police investigation in the state of Piauí, involving images of sexually children exposed. http://www.infobae.com/2015/02/26/1629380-un-juez-ordeno-la-suspension-whatsapp-brasil
A Brazilian judge ordered to block access to the WhatsApp messaging service for 72 hours, it is the second time in five months. http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/46950/laws-and-regulations/whatsapp-blocked-brazil.html
Would be curious to see how many folks subscribe to a vpn, which would get you around this block in a blink. ISP is protected because they can't see WhatsApp being used so they are in compliance too. Win, win!!
Yes I wonder how usage of VPN was affected by this, also. I guess we will all soon need VPN to access websites and services. Probably surfing through some VPN servers placed on satellites orbiting the Earth
It is the second time this has happened here. People usually starts using Telegram instead of Whatsapp. I personally only use Telegram, despite using VPN on mobile anyway. No one here seems to mind. There is no talk about the consequences.
Right. Low-orbit with high-power WiMax But then, they could be jammed or taken out, if it came down to it.
Brazilian judge overturns 72-hour Whatsapp suspension https://threatpost.com/brazilian-judge-overturns-72-hour-whatsapp-suspension
Suspending the program is a bad idea, it affects all other users. A much better approach would be to implement an incremental fine, culminating in the arrest of the representative person/people of Facebook in Brazil.
But there should be one person, right? I think that's a law here, that for an international company to have a business in Brazil it must have a person in charge in the country.
From what I've read, they don't actually "have a business in Brazil". It's just that WhatsApp has been popular there.
They do, I guess. If they function here, and make money here, they must comply with the legal terms of this country like any other business has. And where hasn't it been? This is a honest question as I've never used it myself since I don't have a smartphone. So I assume it's also popular in most other countries.
That's not so simple for Internet stuff. It's available everywhere, unless blocked. Laws? What are laws?
Sometimes laws are powerful and for the bad, unfortunately. If a judge wants, he/she could block the entire internet of Brazil. Obviously that's a decision that could quickly be undone by another judge (and the first judge would face legal actions for abusing his/her power), but it's possible that the president blocks the internet of Brazil.
Tracking The Impact of the WhatsApp Blockage on Tor https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tracking-impact-whatsapp-blockage-tor