A couple of days ago, a judge in Brazil ordered WhatsApp to be blocked in the country for 72 hours for failing to hand over data related to a case. However this ruling was overturned shortly after by another judge. This wouldn’t really be such a big deal, but this is actually the second time in less than half a year that the messaging app has been ordered to be blocked.
Given that about 100 million users in Brazil rely on the messaging app, safe to say that many were pretty annoyed with the blockage as it would have no doubt been highly inconvenient for many. So much so that it seems that lawmakers in Brazil want a bill that will shield apps such as WhatsApp from being blocked again in the future, or at least prevent them from being blocked so frivolously.
According to lawmaker Sandro Alex who helped draft the bill, “This way the legislation makes it very clear that judges cannot block these applications, because those suspensions do not fulfill their objectives.” This is actually interesting as this bill would go against other bills that seem to want messaging apps to be removed completely.
Will this bill be a reality? It sounds like a good proposal but we reckon it will probably be met with a lot of resistance, but at the same time it’s an interesting idea and one that we imagine could be picked up or advocated for in other parts of the world where such acts of censorship is aplenty.