WhatsApp block in Brazil lifted, but Mark Zuckerberg urges citizens to protest against government

Moves to block communication apps are 'very scary in a democracy', Zuckerberg said, after a series of run-ins between his company and the Brazilian government

Zuckerberg told Brazilians to use Facebook Messenger while WhatsApp is blocked (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

A block on WhatsApp in Brazil has been lifted – but Mark Zuckerberg has urged citizens to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

WhatsApp was taken offline for 72 hours after a dispute between officials and the company about reading people’s messages. It was the second time that the app had been made unavailable, and followed the arrest of Facebook’s senior executive in the region over a similar argument about user data.

The Facebook CEO demanded his company’s service never get blocked again and urged Brazilians to take to the streets and ask for new legislation to stop further blocks.

Mr Zuckerberg wrote a Facebook post urging people to gather at the Brazilian congress and ask for legislation that would keep WhatsApp and similar services from being banned again.

"You and your friends can help make sure this never happens again, and I hope you get involved," Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, in English. He also posted a link to a petition, calling efforts to block communication "very scary in a democracy."

The suspension highlighted growing international tensions between technology companies' privacy concerns and national authorities' efforts to use social media to gain information on possible criminal activities.

The same judge in Sergipe ordered the imprisonment of a Brazil-based Facebook executive in March in a dispute over demands to access the company's encrypted messaging service as part of a drug trafficking investigation.

California-based WhatsApp had said in a statement on Monday that it was "disappointed" at the judge's decision to suspend its services. It said it had done the utmost to cooperate with Brazilian tribunals, but it did not possess the information the court was requesting.

Matt Steinfeld, a Facebook spokesman, said WhatsApp executives were meeting this week with law enforcement and judicial officials in Brazil to improve communication and clarify that the company cannot see users' encrypted messages and does not store them after transmission.

It was the second time in five months that WhatsApp in Brazil has been suspended. A Sao Paulo state judge ordered it shut down for 48 hours on Dec. 15, after Facebook failed to comply with an order. Another court lifted that suspension shortly afterward.

Monday's suspension angered many in Brazil, where the service is used by individuals, companies and federal and local governments to send messages and share pictures and videos. Cost-conscious Brazilians are avid users of free messaging apps, and WhatsApp is by far the most popular - installed on more than 90 percent of Android devices.

As some Brazilians sought an alternative messaging system, rival Telegram said on Monday that it suffered technical problems under the weight of demand. It said it received more than a million new user requests.

Letacia Mendes, a 20-year-old shop assistant in Rio de Janeiro, said she was frustrated by the suspension because it could force people to use pay services.

"It's really bad," she told Reuters. "It's just a way of getting more money out of us, when we already have to pay for so many things."

The suspension came as a congressional commission on cyber crime in Brazil debated changes to the 2014 legislation governing the use of the Internet.

Lower house deputy Esperidiao Amin, the rapporteur of the commission, said his proposed reform would help avoid shutdowns of this kind by allowing the blocking of specific individuals or IP addresses suspected of illicit activity, rather than the access of all users.

"It's less dramatic than withdrawing the service from the whole of the Brazilian population," he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters