FB's Latin America Vice President Arrested In Brazil

Facebook South America vice-president has been arrested on Tuesday in Sao Paulo airport by Brasilian federal agents on the ground that "Facebook repeatedly refused to comply with court orders of confidential investigations regarding organized crime and drug trafficking".

“In the face of repeated non-compliance, the judge Marcel Maia ordered the arrest of a representative of the company in Brazil, Mr Diego Dzodan for obstructing the police investigation,” a court spokesman wrote in an email.

Facebook called the police action “extreme and disproportionate”.

It says WhatsApp – which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 and has no staff based in Brazil – operates independently so Dzodan should not be held responsible. Moreover, it notes that the WhatsApp messaging service does not store content, which is encrypted by users at either end. The courts, it says, are requesting information it does not have.

This is different from information found on the Facebook social network, which is archived and can be provided on a case-by-case basis if requested by Brazilian law enforcement officers and approved by the company’s lawyers.

“Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have,” a company spokesman said.

This is not the first controversy regarding WhatsApp, which has been the most popular download in Brazil over the past two years and is used by about half of the 200 million population. In a separate case in December, a court issued an injunction for WhatsApp to be shut down for 48 hours for twice failing to comply with its orders.

That injunction was overturned after an outcry by users and an intervention by Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who described the shutdown as “a sad day for Brazil”.