Senior Facebook exec held for questioning as Brazil seeks WhatsApp info in drug case
Facebook Inc.’s top executive in Latin America was held for questioning on a Brazilian judge’s order on Tuesday, after the company allegedly failed to cooperate by providing WhatsApp information in a secret drug-trafficking case.
Diego Dzodan was being questioned in São Paulo in what Facebook described as an “extreme and disproportionate measure,” according to the BBC News, the Guardian and Reuters.
WhatsApp said in its own statement that it had cooperated as much as possible and cannot “provide information we do not have,” reports an Associated Press story.
Although Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014, the two companies operate independently, Facebook said. WhatsApp is the most popular application in Brazil, used on nearly 95 percent of Android devices there.
Updated March 15 to correct the spelling of São Paulo.
