Brazil detains Facebook executive over data dispute

The Brazilian government, yesterday, detained a Facebook executive over a data dispute.

According to Brazil's federal police, the executive was taken into custody yesterday for not cooperating with judicial orders related to information on the company's website in an investigation into drug trafficking.

Bloomberg reported that a judge in Sergipe ordered the detention of Diego Dzodan, vice president of Latin America at Facebook and Instagram, citing a person familiar with the matter who was not authorised to speak publicly, after the social-media company repeatedly failed to comply with the court order.

The executive remained in custody and was responding to questioning in Sao Paulo, the police said in a statement.

''We are disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure of having a Facebook executive escorted to a police station in connection with a case involving WhatsApp, which operates separately from Facebook,'' Facebook said in an e-mail. "Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have."

This comes as the latest of the company's run-ins with international governments. The company had earlier tangled with regulators in India over Free Basics for first-time internet users. The Egytian government had earlier shut down Free Basics.

According to commentators, the case reflected the growing conflict between technology firms and governments around the world over access to customer data.

WhatsApp had told Brazilian  authorities that it was not able to intercept instant messages in connection with a drug investigation.

According to commentators with more companies using strong encryption on their customers' devices and communication, the information became increasingly out of reach for law enforcement, even if officials had obtained warrants.

Both WhatsApp and Facebook have gained huge popularity in Brazil, where WhatsApp had over 100 million users.

According to WhatsApp, it was moving to strong encryption on its platform to protect users' security and privacy.