The hugely popular WhatsApp smartphone messaging service was briefly blocked by a Brazilian court Tuesday for the third time in less than a year after failing to surrender user data to police. The latest drama ended after the Supreme Court president, Ricardo Lewandowski, accepted an appeal against a lower court order that shut down the service nearly four hours earlier.
“The suspension of service apparently violates the fundamental precept of freedom of expression and communication,” the Supreme Court said, adding that Lewandowski found that the lower court judge’s decision seemed “not very reasonable and not very proportional.”. Read more
