WhatsApp is unusable in Brazil for two days due to a court decision

The estimated 93 million users of WhatsApp in Brazil will not be able to use the application on Thursday and Friday. A judge has ordered the telecom providers to block WhatsApp to put pressure on the company.

The judge wants to force WhatsApp to release information by blocking the blockade. The court had asked for data that certain users had exchanged via the service in an investigation, but WhatsApp repeatedly failed to comply with that request, writes the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo. It is unknown what kind of data is involved.

The block will last from Wednesday midnight local time to Friday midnight local time. During that time, providers have to block WhatsApp in its entirety. The application is estimated to have more than 93 million users in Brazil, or more than 90 percent of the country’s population online. This makes it by far the most used tool.

WhatsApp foreman Jan Koum reacts with disappointment to the blockade. “We are disappointed in the short-sighted decision to block access to WhatsApp. It is a communication tool that many Brazilians depend on. It is sad to see Brazil isolating itself from the rest of the world.”

The chat app has not made any friends among Brazilian providers. With the introduction of the calling function, providers see WhatsApp as an ‘unlicensed provider’ and the lobby group of providers is urging the government to impose strict rules on applications that use VoIP.