Marco Civil
Brazil has historically strong online civil liberties laws. ‘The Brazilian Civil Rights Framework For The Internet’, known as the ‘Marco Civil’ sets into law the basic tenets of internet freedom. In recent months, there have been fears that these ideals may be overturned. Though the so-called ‘spy bill’ has not been enshrined into law, events last week have seemed to add credence to these concerns.
Blocked messages
Brazilians who loaded up WhatsApp on Thursday last week found that the popular messaging app did not work. The Court of Justice of São Paulo determined, based on the very laws which govern internet freedom, to block the app across Brazil for 48 hours.
The blockade was instituted in order to conduct an investigation into the ‘breach of data confidentiality’, which may have been related to a police investigation. The block imposed on WhatsApp had effects beyond Brazil. Chile and Argentina were among other countries in South America which were affected. However, in the early afternoon of the very day the decision was made, the courts ordered the reinstitution of WhatsApp. It was once again available two days later.
Digital dispute
WhatsApp was blocked due to the company’s failure to respond to a court order issued on the 23rd of July of this year. blockade was happening because WhatsApp did not respond to a court order of July 23 this year. On 7 August, WhatsApp was once again notified, and again failed to respond. The Brazilian government ordered the messaging service to handover user information, a controversial request to which WhatsApp would not comply. This failure to comply provoked the blocking of the app. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and owner of the messaging application, commented that the company was “working hard to reverse the situation.” Zuckerberg suggested users communicate via Facebook Messenger while the situation was being resolved. Ultimately, rival messaging apps were the beneficiaries of the ban. Brazil boasts 100 million WhatsApp users, and with the block in place, millions fled to rival services. Use of Viber grew by 2000% in just 12 hours, while Telegram saw 1.5 million new Brazilian users. This incident hearkens back to a similar case in February. Brazil is simply the latest battleground. The conflict between governments and internet companies for data control continues.
