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Judge Luiz de Moura Correia ordered the ban after the messaging service allegedly failed to help with an investigation linked with "sexually graphic photos of children being shared on the app."

The block was ordered at the beginning of February, although the app has so far continued to work as normal.

According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo, lawyers are appealing against the ban which could have huge implications for the service.

SindiTelebrasil, the organisation that represents the industry, has warned the suspension would cause "huge losses to millions of everyday Brazilians, including at work" - and claimed the judge's ruling was "extreme and disproportionate."

Because WhatsApp have no represenatives in Brazil the order to ban the service has been passed on to mobile networks in the country.

All of WhatsApp's messages are encrypted making it difficult for security services to snoop on what is being sent.

Last month PM David Cameron said the UK government was also considering a ban on encrypted messages.

Speaking about plans to revive the "snoopers' charter" he said: “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?”

WhatsApp has over 700 million users across the globe and was purchased last year by Facebook for $19billion (£12.3 billion).

Since it launched in 2009 it's become the one of the world's most popular apps with over 30 billion messages sent every day.