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Re:WhatsApp, Used by 100M Brazilians, Shut Down Nationwide T... by simonh on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @07:56AM (#11619725)
There's absolutely nothing special in this case because WhatsApp happens to be operating on the internet. Suppose they were a mail order company based in Brazil but serving customers internationally by post. If a US judge issued a court order in the US requiring the company to hand over business records stored on paper in Barzil, he would have no jurisdiction whatsoever. Brazilian law protecting the privacy of information stored in Brazil would prevail. there would be no controversy about this.

The fact that WhatsApp's info is stored on servers rather than paper records is irrelevant. The jurisdiction in which the records reside applies. Although the fact that their servers don't even store the information requested anyway should be.

Re:WhatsApp, Used by 100M Brazilians, Shut Down Nationwide T... by rmc on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @08:24AM (#11619904)
> Suppose they were a mail order company based in Brazil but serving customers internationally by post. If a US judge issued a court order in the US requiring the company to hand over business records stored on paper in Barzil, he would have no jurisdiction whatsoever.

Fair point. But to continue that analogy, the US judge is quite free to ban the commercial operation of that Brazilian company in the USA. Which is exactly what happens, and is happening here.

Re:WhatsApp, Used by 100M Brazilians, Shut Down Nationwide T... by simonh on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @11:04AM (#11621271)
OK. So now you're banning a company for operating in your country, because they choose not to become criminals in their own jurisdiction. So why ban them for a day or two? What's that supposed to accomplish? Logically if this was the justification they would ban it permanently. Banning it temporarily is just playing spiteful games that isn't going to accomplish anything.