Last we heard, Facebook-owned WhatsApp was boasting about 1 billion active users, but it looks like today that number might have taken a pretty huge hit. According to reports, it seems that over in Brazil a judge has ordered local telcos to block access to the messaging app, which in turn affects more than 100 million users in the country.This isn’t the first time that WhatsApp has run into trouble with the Brazilian government. Last year access to the app was shut down for 48 hours, and this time round it looks like that ban will last an extra day with access being blocked for 72 hours. Unfortunately it is unclear as to why the app is being banned, but some speculate that it could be due to an ongoing case in the country.
According to WhatsApp, they claim that they are “disappointed at the decision” despite doing their best to cooperate with the Brazilian tribunals. They also add that by doing this, it “punishes more than 100 million users who depend upon us to communicate themselves, run their business and more, just to force us hand over information that we don’t have.”
Brazil has been pretty aggressive in their attempts to extract information from tech companies. Just a couple of months ago, a judge ordered the imprisonment of a Brazil-based Facebook executive who failed to comply with a block on WhatsApp, although that executive has since been freed.