Brazilian Court Issues Blocking Order for Mega.nz and Oload.tv
- Ten file hosting platforms have been blocked by Brazilian ISPs following a relevant court order.
- The admins of Mega.nz feel that the blocks are unjustified and that the court has been misled.
- They are now working on a solution, either legal or technical, that will get them back online in Brazil.
Brazilian ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have started blocking the file-hosting platforms Mega.nz and Oload.tv after the São Paulo Court of Justice issued a relevant order. At first, Mega.nz received reports about the blocks from its users and figured that the problem was a DNS block imposed by Vivo-Telefonica. The first response of the file hosting service was to urge Vivo to lift the blockage via a tweet, warning them that they are violating their own service user agreement by interfering with the internet of their customers.
Olá @vivobr, estamos recebendo relatos de nossos usuários de que a Vivo está bloqueando o https://t.co/faSWyTOIA4 por meio de um bloqueio de DNS. Por favor, retifique isso o mais rápido possível! Você está interferindo na Internet de seus clientes.
— MEGA (@MEGAprivacy) September 19, 2019
Soon, they figured that more ISPs like Oi, Algar Telecom and Claro Brasil were doing the same, and Mega.nz wasn’t the only website that was blocked. According to a Brazilian news source, the São Paulo Court of Justice decided to impose blocks on 10 domains on September 12, 2019 and gave the ISPs two weeks to comply. That is why the first effects of this court order became apparent just now. Another notable and highly popular file hosting provider that was impacted by this order is Oload.tv, a domain belonging to Openload. Other domains that are now blocked include Alfastream.cc, Akugyash.com, ClipWatching.com, Fembed.net, VideoShare.club, and Verystream.net.
Has the São Paulo Court of Justice decided to block the above one day all of a sudden? That’s highly unlikely, but there have been no details about who drove this action. Some rumors want ABTA (the Brazilian Association of Subscription Television) to be the plaintiff that submitted the complaint which started the blocking avalanche. After the realization of the extent of the blocks as well as their nature, has been made, Mega published the following tweet to express their dissatisfaction with the order.
Com relação ao bloco no Brasil, acreditamos respeitosamente que a ordem está errada e que o Tribunal foi enganado. MEGA tem excelente conformidade. Estamos trabalhando em uma solução. Pedimos desculpas pelo inconveniente e agradecemos sua paciência! 🇧🇷
— MEGA (@MEGAprivacy) September 30, 2019
Mega.nz is based in New Zealand, and has always promoted its services from the perspective of “private and secure file hosting”. However, with no upload filters in place, anyone could upload anything they liked onto the platform and so people naturally indulged in piracy. Still, Mega won’t give up and accept their fate, as the Brazilian market is a pretty large one for them. Right now, they are working on a solution, and ask their audience to stay patient until they find a way to get around the blocks. For those of you who want to access the blocked websites in Brazil, you may change your ISPs default DNS to a different one and regain access.
Do you agree with the court’s decision, or do you believe that file hosting services should be accessible by everyone? Let us know of your opinion in the comments down below, or on our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.