(credit: Andrew Cunningham)

For the third time in less than a year, a Brazilian judge has ordered (Google Translate) messaging app WhatsApp to be blocked by the country’s five major mobile phone companies.

According to Reuters, Judge Daniela Barbosa Assunção de Souza in the state of Rio de Janeiro did not give a reason for the blockade due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case and said it “will only be lifted once Facebook surrenders data.”

It is likely that Brazilian investigators have been frustrated by end-to-end encrypted messages on the Facebook-owned app.