A Brazilian court in the state of Sergipe has ordered that all services for WhatsApp be suspended nationwide for 72 hours, starting at 2 pm local time on Monday.

The decision by judge Marcel Maia Montalvao came in response to a request by the federal police after Facebook, owner of the messaging app, refused to collaborate with an investigation as to whether WhatsApp messages were used for drug trafficking purposes.

Montalvao had ordered Facebook to provide the names of WhatsApp users thought to be exchanging information about drugs. However, Facebook refused and was fined 50,000 reais (14,300 U.S. dollars) every day, starting two months ago.

After still not having complied, Facebook was fined 1 million reais (286,000 U.S. dollars) last month.

Five telephone operators in Brazil (TIM, Oi, Vivo, Claro and Nextel) have all stated they have complied with the investigation.

Source: XINHUA