The messenger Telegram gained over 7 million new users in Brazil for the day after locking WhatsApp. This is stated in the official Twitter account of the company. Lock the latter came into force on Monday, according to the decision of the local court.
Judge Marcela, Montalvao from the state of Sancti Spiritus decided to suspend work on WhatsApp 72 hours due to the failure of the messenger to fulfill previously decided by the court in a criminal case involving drug smuggling, under which the administration of the service demanded the authorities to reveal the correspondence of suspects in the crime.
Mobile operators in Brazil recently lobbied for the idea that WhatsApp is illegal and it can’t be regulated, but also publicly accused the service that many local residents refused to mobile communications in principle. The head of WhatsApp Jan koum said that he had regret that Brazil decided to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.
WhatsApp turned off at 14:00 hours of may 2 local time (20:00 MSK). After disabling the service the inhabitants of Brazil have begun to register with Telegram. About 10 o’clock in the evening representatives of the messenger grew by about 7 millions of new users. Due to the active growth of connections are the largest SMS providers even stopped to deliver SMS (Telegram this method sends codes to activate the profile).
WhatsApp is the most used messenger in Brazil — the audience is about 93 million people, or 93% of the Internet population. The popularity of the service is associated with a large number of low-income people and the most expensive in the world rate plans.
Brazilian authorities are trying to establish a new order that will oblige the inhabitants to enter an identification code, the address and the phone number to access the Network. Tight control will enable the authorities to censor social networks and other services, as well as to know for sure what kind of person wrote the objectionable message.
At the end of 2015, the court of industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo, Sao Bernardo do Campo, issued a decree banning the activities of WhatsApp in Brazil after the company did not respond to two court decisions on the exchange of information in a criminal case. However, lock WhatsApp only lasted about 12 hours: the court of appeal reversed the first instance decision. However, even such a short lock influx of users in the services-competitors WhatsApp.
