This isn't as simple as it seems: 1) The investigation that led to these fines (and now to freezing Facebook's funds) begun in January 2015, way before widespr

This isn't as simple as it seems: 1) The investigation that led to these fines (and now to freezing Facebook's funds) begun in January 2015, way before widespread encryption was implemented in Whatsapp. Whatsapp received several requests to cooperate from the first month, apparently without reply. So the argument that E2E encryption is the reason why they do not cooperate doesn't really hold. [1] 2) On the other hand, our judges and the police have flirted with the ridiculous notion that Whatsapp should "disable encryption for some users" or "find a technological solution to get around encryption" (meaning: a backdoor). [2] While this is obviously possible, it is also clearly unethical and a judge shouldn't punish the company over this possibility without there being a large discussion - possibly laws - on the subject. People have been quick to blame the judges because of extreme court actions, but the truth is Whatsapp is no saint; some of these investigations could hit high profile criminals and obviously getting to their communications would have been a lot of help to the police, and this was possible at some point. It isn't possible anymore, so I think what we're seeing now is a backlash from those early requests. [1] http://paranaportal.uol.com.br/geral/justica-de-londrina-bloqueia-r-195-milhoes-por-segredo-de-dados-no-whatsapp/ http://paranaportal.uol.com.br/geral/justica-de-londrina-blo... [2] http://m.convergenciadigital.com.br/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?UserActiveTemplate=site&infoid=42533&sid=4 http://m.convergenciadigital.com.br/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start...