WhatsApp banned by Brazilian Judge—Wants the app to contribute in Police Investigations.
Luiz de Moura Correia, the Judge from the state of Piauí, has put a ban on the popular mobile messaging app WhatsApp in Brazil.
He took this decision to force the owners of this app to cooperate with the State Police in their criminal investigations.
Allegedly, the mobile app is not contributing in investigations since 2013 and it may be involved in crimes against kids and teens. However, the kind and nature of crimes hasn’t been confirmed by the judge but he maintains the crimes to be “severe.”
According to Moura, “If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have made this decision.”
Moura also demanded that the internet and mobile services providers append the app’s usage just like telephone operators.
Lawyer maintains that the company has denied compliance with police and this has halted the investigations.
Police department has been investigating crimes that fall under the category of the Protection of Children and teenagers in Teresina, Piauí’s capital.
An example of why the department wants WhatsApp makers to help was given by the magistrate: “Until very recently we made phone interceptions, but nowadays nobody uses the phone [to speak], they only use WhatsApp.”
He says that Police need WhatsApp’s company to comply “So that we can know what criminals have said, where they are by monitoring mobile apps.”
Instead of the American WhatsApp owner firm, the telecommunication companies were asked to conduct the ban because WhatsApp denied providing this sort of information. The firm says that it is its policy to comply with Brazilian laws since it doesn’t have any branch in Brazil.
Facebook, which introduced the messaging service in 2014, did not comment on this judgment and states that companies work independently.
Gisele Arantes, the digital law specialist, states: “On paper, they are independent companies.”
As of now there is no news about what measures will be taken by the Telecomm companies in Brazil, however, the companies have been notified.
Until Wednesday, the app was operating normally.
Moura states that a meeting was held with corporate lawyers on Wednesday but he did not disclose who were the attendees and to which industry sector they represented.
“What I have put forward is that if WhatsApp met the diligence and supplied information, [the ban] would be automatically suspended,” says Moura.
Telephone operators’ representative association SindiTelebrasil has released a press statement informing that this measure is “disproportionate” because WhatsApp owner denied sharing information of a small number of people and the judge “decided to suspend the service across the entire country.”
According to the association, Telecomm firms “don’t have anything to do with the service.”
When Moura was asked if he also uses WhatsApp like the 700million people across the globe do, he skipped the question saying “Let’s leave this answer to the end of the lawsuit.”
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