The BTK denied that circumvention tools were ordered blocked; however Ahment Arslan, the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication, said “We only restrict the use of VPNs because of terrorism reasons. Surely nobody would have an objection about this.”

In December, Psiphon blogged about a previous blocking event in Brazil, available here.

Psiphon use surged again in Brazil in response to another nationwide suspension of WhatsApp messaging service. On May 2nd, Brazilian state judge Marcel Maia Montalvão issued an order to block WhatsApp for 72 hours. The judge is seeking user data from WhatsApp as part of a criminal investigation. The five main mobile operators were ordered to block the messaging service, beginning at Monday at 2 p.m. local time.

In response to the recent suspension of WhatsApp services, company CEO Jan Koum posted a message to Facebook stating, “Yet again millions of innocent Brazilians are being punished because a court wants WhatsApp to turn over information we repeatedly said we don’t have. Not only do we encrypt messages end-to-end on WhatsApp to keep people’s information safe and secure, we also don’t keep your chat history on our servers. When you send an end-to-end encrypted message, no one else can read it – not even us.”

The suspension was overturned by another judge on Tuesday following an appeal from WhatsApp’s lawyers, allowing WhatsApp to resume services in Brazil.

In March, Judge Montalvão ordered the arrest of Facebook executive Diego Dzodan on charges of obstructing justice after WhatsApp failed to deliver messages subpoenaed in the criminal investigation. A day later, an appeals judge overturned that order and Dzodan was released. Although WhatsApp is owned by Facebook Inc, the two companies operate separately.

During a press conference that followed, Dzodan stated that WhatsApp is unable to turn over the data because it doesn’t store users’ messages after they’ve been delivered. In addition, the messaging service uses end-to-end encryption and messages cannot be intercepted.

Using Psiphon, Brazil’s WhatsApp users were able to retain or restore access to the application. The Psiphon user base in Brazil tripled within the first 24h of the ban. Brazil’s Globo news network recommended Psiphon to circumvent the blocking.

Psiphon in Brazil: bytes per hour, 29 April – 4 May 2016:

At 9PM ET on December 16th WhatsApp was blocked in Brazil. The ban came after a judge ordered that the messenger app be blocked for 48 hours when the company refused to hand over private user information related to a criminal case. For months, Brazilian telecommunications companies have been attempting to shut down WhatsApp because it provides free messaging and voice services. WhatsApp is the most popular messenger service in Brazil and telecoms blame it for luring millions away from paid cell phone use.

Internet users in Brazil reacted strongly to the ban, criticizing the decision to block WhatsApp widely on social media. Millions turned to alternate messenger services and shared circumvention techniques over social media. Psiphon was praised by people in Brazil for being free, open source, and able to keep them connected throughout the blocking event. Psiphon’s surge capacity was able to cope with the increased demand, with peak data use of more than 8x that of a normal day. Psiphon’s unique users in Brazil went from 54,000 on December 16 to 946,000 on December 17.

Less than a day after the block was put in place, a second judge overturned the lower court’s decision and WhatsApp was unblocked. He stated that “it does not seem reasonable that millions of users be affected” because WhatsApp refused to disclose user information. While the surge use of Psiphon settled quickly, more than twice the expected amount of data was being served hours after the block was lifted.

Update: In May 2016 Brazil blocked WhatsApp again, and again users turned to Psiphon.