"Brazil lifts brief block of WhatsApp" by JENNY BARCHFIELD Associated Press December 18, 2015
RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian judge on Thursday struck down a lower court ruling that temporarily ordered telecoms to block the popular messaging service WhatsApp, snarling communications for many of its 100 million users in Brazil for about 12 hours.
The lower court had ordered WhatsApp blocked in connection with a criminal case because it would not hand over user information.
Details were murky as the case is sealed, though local media reported it concerned an investigation into Brazil’s most powerful drug gang.
The original judicial order came as part of a law enforcement investigation in which Facebook Brazil was ordered to put a wiretap on certain WhatsApp accounts, according to the company. WhatsApp can’t do that because it doesn’t store messages sent on its service, and it encrypts all messages so that no one can intercept or read them.
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