WhatsApp
Messenger is a popular instant messaging app that allows users
to send text messages, pictures, voice notes and videos (among
other things) over an Internet connection using cellphones and now,
PCs. As of February 2016, the Facebook-owned app is used by one billion people around the world every
month. Ninety-six per cent of Brazilians use WhatsApp as their
primary method of communication, in part due to the high cost of
SMS. Many commercial transactions are entered into in Brazil on
this platform.
With almost 100 million users in the country, WhatsApp is the
most used app in Brazil. So, when a Brazilian judge ordered
cellphone providers to shut down WhatsApp for 48 hours, it had major
consequences for Brazilian users who were cut off from their
primary means of communication. Media reports claimed that the
ruling was an attempt to force the company to provide user data to
prosecutors in an ongoing criminal investigation. WhatsApp's
lawyers appealed the
