Well, that didn't last long.
After a temporary ban on Facebook's WhatsApp was imposed throughout Brazil at the stroke of midnight Thursday, a different Brazilian judge lifted the ban on the messaging service hours later during the same day, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
A judge in Sao Paulo cleared the block, announcing "it does not seem reasonable that millions of users are affected," referring to WhatsApp not cooperating with a criminal investigation, as reported by the Journal. That judge suggested that WhatsApp be fined as an alternative.
This comes after a separate judge in the country had previously ruled that the messaging service be blocked, bringing a halt to upwards of 100 million Brazilians who regularly use the free app. It even was the most downloaded app of 2014 in Brazil, the world's fourth-biggest market for smartphones.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was amongst the first to blast the original news about the blocking of the app, saying that the company is "working hard to get this block reversed." He prompted WhatsApp users to utilize Facebook Messenger in the meantime and even posted the following statement on his Facebook page:
"This is a sad day for Brazil. Until today, Brazil has been an ally in creating an open Internet. I am stunned that our efforts to protect people's data would result in such an extreme decision by a single judge to punish every person in Brazil who uses WhatsApp. We hope the Brazilian courts quickly reverse course."
Zuckerberg has yet to react to the reversal of this ruling by Brazilian courts just yet as of Thursday, but clearly there's more work that needs to be done to truly have an open Internet world.
