Absolutely this. They've already lost people to Telegram with the repeated blockings. The third question in the Telegram FAQ is 'How is it different from WhatsApp?' [1]. The feud between WhatsApp and Telegram, with the former blocking the latter's links, is well-documented [2]. Both of these apps are available on Android, Windows Phone, and iOS, and since Windows Phone has a higher-than-usual (relative to North America) share in Brazil, this is relevant.

[1] https://telegram.org/faq

[2] http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/01/whatsapp-is-blocking-links-...