$6M in Facebook assets frozen in encryption row

A Brazilian court has frozen $6 million worth of Facebook’s assets in a scuffle over encrypted messages, according to local media.

The ruling on Friday came after the Facebook-owned chat program WhatsApp failed to turn over decrypted copies of messages in a drug trafficking case.

The court’s request would be technically impossible to abide by. WhatsApp encrypts data without giving Facebook or itself the ability to decrypt it.

WhatsApp has no bank accounts in Brazil, so the courts levied the penalty against the parent company. 

Brazil has been the seeking decrypted messages since January, leading to a series of punishments – including the jailing of a Facebook executive and a brief temporary ban on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp boasts 100 million Brazilian users, around half the country’s population.