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Mark Zuckerberg took Brazilian officials to task again for temporarily blocking WhatsApp, the Facebook Inc. messaging service that’s the lifeblood of communication for much of the nation’s smartphone-savvy population.
“The idea that everyone in Brazil can be denied the freedom to communicate the way they want is very scary in a democracy,” Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive officer, said in a blog post Tuesday.
The outage of about 24 hours was the result of a judge’s order in the town of Lagarto. Facebook has waged a battle with Brazilian legal authorities over access to private communications of its users. A judge reinstated the service Tuesday. “Your voices have been heard once again. Thank you to our community for helping resolve this,” Zuckerberg said.
The WhatsApp block in Brazil comes as the world’s biggest technology companies are under competing pressures from governments to make their content accessible to law enforcement and by consumers and businesses seeking privacy for their communications and data. Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google and Microsoft Corp. have decried what they call an unprecedented expansion of government power that endangers the privacy of hundreds of millions of people.
In Brazil, the block left many scrambling for alternative ways to communicate. Pablo Spyer, the operational director at Mirae Asset Wealth Management in Sao Paulo, sends his clients early morning notes through the app about the markets and important news to help them make investment decisions.
“I felt very uncomfortable without WhatsApp and the suspension made me and my clients lose a lot of time,” Spyer said in an interview. “Many clients that receive my messages every day called to ask about the markets.”
Zuckerberg Denounces ‘Scary’ WhatsApp Blockade That Roils Brazil - Bloomberg
“The idea that everyone in Brazil can be denied the freedom to communicate the way they want is very scary in a democracy,” Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive officer, said in a blog post Tuesday.
The outage of about 24 hours was the result of a judge’s order in the town of Lagarto. Facebook has waged a battle with Brazilian legal authorities over access to private communications of its users. A judge reinstated the service Tuesday. “Your voices have been heard once again. Thank you to our community for helping resolve this,” Zuckerberg said.
The WhatsApp block in Brazil comes as the world’s biggest technology companies are under competing pressures from governments to make their content accessible to law enforcement and by consumers and businesses seeking privacy for their communications and data. Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google and Microsoft Corp. have decried what they call an unprecedented expansion of government power that endangers the privacy of hundreds of millions of people.
In Brazil, the block left many scrambling for alternative ways to communicate. Pablo Spyer, the operational director at Mirae Asset Wealth Management in Sao Paulo, sends his clients early morning notes through the app about the markets and important news to help them make investment decisions.
“I felt very uncomfortable without WhatsApp and the suspension made me and my clients lose a lot of time,” Spyer said in an interview. “Many clients that receive my messages every day called to ask about the markets.”
Zuckerberg Denounces ‘Scary’ WhatsApp Blockade That Roils Brazil - Bloomberg
