On Monday, a Brazilian civil court in Vitória granted a preliminary injunction to a public prosecutor, prohibiting Apple and Google from distributing the anonymous sharing app Secret and Microsoft from distributing Secret's Windows Phone client, Cryptic. The injunction also said that the three app store proprietors had to remotely delete the app off Brazilian users' devices.

Secret is an app that lets users share anonymous messages with friends, friends of friends, or publicly. The anonymous nature of the app has led to some complaints of bullying, to which the app responded by adding a "no-bullying" filter.

The preliminary injunction is an interim decision ahead of a final ruling, and Apple, Google, and Microsoft will have a chance to appeal. As GigaOm writes, public prosecutor Marcelo Zenkner “said he had been contacted by people complaining about anonymous bullying. Because any removal request must be sent in English to an American judge via the Brazilian foreign ministry, he said, there was no way for victims to effectively defend themselves.” Secret has been available in Brazil since May.

Chapter five, article 1 of the Brazilian constitution specifies that “the expression of thought is free, anonymity being forbidden,” and that was the legal justification upon which the Brazilian judge rested his decision, calling Secret's promises of anonymity unconstitutional. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have 10 days to comply, or they'll be fined 20,000 reals a day (or $8,870).

According to UOL (Google Translate), opposing lawyers argued that Secret does not violate the constitution because it is technically possible to trace who is posting anonymous messages through e-mail and phone number records. Secret told the paper that if a court mandates that it reveal information that it has on a user, it would have to comply.