Brazilian police arrest Facebook’s Latin America vice-president

The Guardian, 03/01/2016

Police in São Paulo say they have arrested the vice-president of Facebook in Latin America.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the police said that Diego Dzodan, an Argentinian, was arrested on an order from a judge in the north-eastern state of Sergipe. Dzodan is accused of ignoring a judicial order in a secret investigation involving organized crime and drug trafficking.

In december, a Brazilian judge blocked the popular WhatsApp messaging service owned by Facebook because it refused to give user information to police.

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Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to skirt U.S. spying

Robin Emmott – Reuters, 2/24/2014

Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil’s reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.

At a summit in Brussels, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the $185 million cable project was central to “guarantee the neutrality” of the Internet, signaling her desire to shield Brazil’s Internet traffic from U.S. surveillance.

“We have to respect privacy, human rights and the sovereignty of nations. We don’t want businesses to be spied upon,” Rousseff told a joint news conference with the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.

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