Brazil's Federal Supreme Court has now suspended the ruling by the lower court judge, which ordered mobile phone carriers to block access to WhatsApp.

Reuters reports that

“We're pleased that people can access WhatsApp again in Brazil," Matt Steinfeld, a WhatsApp spokesman, e-mailed Ars in a statement.

Our original story follows:

For the third time in less than a year, a Brazilian judge has ordered (Google Translate) messaging app WhatsApp to be blocked by the country’s five major mobile phone companies.

According to Reuters, Judge Daniela Barbosa Assunção de Souza in the state of Rio de Janeiro did not give a reason for the blockade due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case and said it "will only be lifted once Facebook surrenders data."

It is likely that Brazilian investigators have been frustrated by end-to-end encrypted messages on the Facebook-owned app.

Previously, Brazilian authorities went so far as to imprison a Facebook executive for a day after he refused to turn over data that he did not have access to.

"In recent months, people from all across Brazil have rejected judicial blocks of services like WhatsApp," Matt Steinfeld, a WhatsApp spokesman, e-mailed Ars in a statement on Tuesday.

"Indiscriminate steps like these threaten people's ability to communicate, to run their businesses, and to live their lives. As we've said in the past, we cannot share information we don't have access to. We hope to see this block lifted as soon as possible."

Steinfeld said that Facebook would be appealing the decision in court.

As Ars reported earlier this year, WhatsApp is now using the same Signal encryption protocol in iOS that has been in Android since 2014.

The implementation of this crucial crypto protocol is at least partially thanks to American tax dollars. Since 2013, Open Whisper Systems has received a total of $2.25 million from the Open Technology Fund, an umbrella group whose primary funder is the United States government, through agencies such as the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Department of State.