It's the end of days for free chat services, or at least seemingly the beginning of the end - WhatsApp has been banned for 72 hours in Brazil.

Leaving more than 100 million users without access to the instant messaging offering, WhatsApp has been pulled for three days on the back of a judge's ruling.

The decision, according to Bloomberg, focuses around Brazil's displeasure at WhatsApp's use of end-to-end encryption to protect users' messages, and the company's "failure to turn over data in a criminal investigation".

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It's the second time in six months that WhatsApp has been banned in the South American nation, with a 48-hour block having been imposed back in December.

"The decision punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who rely on our service to communicate, run their business, and more, in order to force us to turn over information we repeatedly said we don't have," an official WhatsApp spokesperson said.

The ban will not affect UK users - phew.

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