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A judge in Brazil has ordered a ban on messaging service WhatsApp to be lifted.
A court in Sao Paulo had ordered mobile phone operators to block the WhatsApp Messenger smartphone application for two days. The initial ruling was said to be due to the Facebook-owned application failing to co-operate with a criminal investigation.
Now a second judge has ordered the suspension be lifted, saying the service would be re-instated immediately.
Judge Xavier de Souza said it was “not reasonable that millions of users be affected by the inertia of the company.”
WhatsApp is reportedly the most popular app in Brazil, with around 100 million users in the country. The service offers free text and voice messaging over the internet, as well as the ability to make voice calls, also for free.
The app has around 900 million users globally, placing it well ahead of other social platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.
Earlier, Brazilian media had reported that Judge Sandra Regina Nostre Marques applied the ban in relation to the app’s withholding of messages concerning a suspect in a drug trafficking investigation.
In a statement on Facebook, WhatsApp chief executive Jan Koum criticised the initial decision.
“We are disappointed in the short-sighted decision to cut off access to WhatsApp, a communication tool that so many Brazilians have come to depend on, and sad to see Brazil isolate itself from the rest of the world,” he said.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had also hit out at the ban on his personal Facebook page, saying he was “stunned” by the decision.
And Brazilians took to social media in their thousands to complain about being made to suffer.
