Facebook VP detained over company's standoff with police
A Facebook executive in Brazil has been detained after authorities said the company failed to comply with a court order.
The court order asked Facebook to provide data from WhatsApp, a messaging app it owns, in connection with a criminal investigation into drug trafficking.
Police in São Paulo took Diego Dzodan, Facebook's VP for Latin America, in for questioning on Tuesday morning. He is still in custody, Facebook said.
Dzodan joined the company last June, according to his LinkedIn profile. His Facebook and LinkedIn profiles also list him as the VP for Latin America at Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook (FB, Tech30).
Dzodan's detainment comes four months after authorities first obtained a court order, according to a spokeswoman for Brazilian Federal Police in the state of Sergipe.
Authorities in Sergipe said they needed Facebook's help in a case where the suspects used Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to communicate and plan their crimes. Gmail was another platform, according to the spokeswoman.
According to the authorities, the judge issued the order three times and started fining Facebook 50,000 reals ($12,600) daily for noncompliance two months ago. Last month, the fine increased to 1 million reals ($253,000) per day. A warrant was issued for Dzodan on February 7.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/01/technology/facebook-brazil/index.html
What a shame -- And in Glenn Greenwald's backyard, too... I have no doubt our fearless Mr. Greenwald will get right on this outrage once he finishes writing his Hillary smear piece for today...
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