Brazil judge overturns 72-hour suspension of WhatsApp

On Monday, a judge in the northeastern state of Sergipe had ordered Brazil's five main wireless operators to block access to WhatsApp for 72 hours. The reason for the order was not made public due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case before the state court.

However, a different judge from the state tribunal intervened to cancel Monday's ruling following an appeal from WhatsApp's lawyers, the court said in a statement.

The judge who ordered the suspension, Marcel Maia Montalvão, in March ordered the imprisonment of a Brazil-based Facebook executive in a dispute over law enforcement demands for data from the company’s encrypted messaging service for use in a drug trafficking investigation.

The executive was freed after about 24 hours, when an appeals court overturned his arrest.

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

The company has said in the past that it does not store encrypted information from WhatsApp messages.

The incident comes as technology companies face mounting pressure from governments around the world to help them eavesdrop on users and censor data.

The suspension of WhatsApp services had frustrated many in Brazil, where more than three quarters of mobile phone subscribers use the app.

"It was an invasive measure," said Mariana Pepeu, a 23-year-old student in Rio de Janeiro. "But the laws for the Internet are very recent and they are still being written (in Brazil)."

(Editing by Daniel Flynn and Frances Kerry)