Court orders Brazil to cut off WhatsApp service for 48 hours

Jeb Blount, writing for Reuters:

Access in Brazil to the WhatsApp phone-messaging application was cut off early on Thursday after a judge told phone companies to block the popular service for 48 hours for failure to comply with a July court order in a criminal case.

SindiTelebrasil, a Brazilian phone-company association, said it received the order to shut off WhatsApp text message and Internet voice telephone service throughout Latin America’s largest country Wednesday afternoon. The blockade went into effect at midnight (0200 GMT Thursday) as required by the court.

Wow. Imagine if this happened to Twitter. Or Facebook. Or Messages. WhatsApp is huge, with more than 100 million users in Brazil alone.

UPDATE: Reuters just issued this update:

A Brazilian court on Thursday ordered the lifting of a 48-hour suspension on the services in Brazil of phone-messaging application WhatsApp, owned by Facebook Inc, overturning an order from a lower court.