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The telecommunications operators confirmed they received the order and started suspending the service early Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement e-mailed by Sinditelebrasil, the country’s phone-company association. Telefonica Brasil SA and Oi SA also confirmed the suspension individually.

Brazil is heading to the Olympics deep in a two-year recession, with President Dilma Rousseff suspended amid the country’s largest corruption scandal ever. The five hospitals recommended for Olympic tourists are so full that some have been forced to leave patients on gurneys in hallways, according to a report from the local medical council.

The WhatsApp suspension adds tension to the situation, as many store owners rely on the service to do business. The service is so popular in Brazil that real estate agents have their WhatsApp numbers in business cards.

“We hope to see this blockade lifted as soon as possible,” WhatsApp said in an e-mail from its press officer in Brazil. “Indiscriminate acts like this one threaten people’s ability to communicate, manage their business and live their lives. As we said before, we can’t share information to which we don’t have access.”

When the service was suspended in May, the company said it doesn’t keep records of users’ conversations and therefore isn’t able to turn over data. Since the beginning of the year, the company has also implemented encryption to the messages to increase security.

Bloomberg News