The Global Network Initiative is deeply concerned by a Brazilian court decision today to once again order a nation-wide blocking of the WhatsApp messaging service.

This judicial overreach denies some 100 million WhatsApp users access to a secure way to contact family members and friends, find employment, run their small businesses and access vital information.

This shutdown — ordered for three days — follows the temporary block of WhatsApp in December last year, and the troubling arrest of an executive from WhatsApp parent company Facebook in March. That arrest was in response to the same ongoing court dispute over law enforcement access to customer data that was cited as the basis for today’s shutdown order.

For further information, read GNI’s previous statements on the arrest and prior suspension of the WhatsApp service.