A court in São Paulo has ordered Meta to say whether messages were deleted from a WhatsApp group set up for customers planning to take part in a rope-jumping activity that ended in the death of 21-year-old Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas in Limeira on June 13. The company must also clarify why the Instagram account of the activity’s organizer, Entre Cordas, was deactivated and whether the decision was made by Meta or someone else.
The court has asked Meta to preserve the WhatsApp group’s message history and, if it cannot provide that information, to supply the full phone number linked to the Instagram account’s two-step verification. A court filing says an attempt to restore the profile on October 27, made in response to a request from the defense of Evelyne dos Santos Gonçalves, was unsuccessful because of that verification process. Gonçalves is identified as the page’s administrator and faces charges in connection with the death.
The order followed a request by two defendants to postpone a hearing scheduled for Tuesday until Meta responded. The court rejected the request, saying the digital evidence does not affect the cause of the case or prevent the defendants from presenting their defense. The questioning of three defendants remains scheduled for Tuesday.
Four people face charges of qualified homicide with eventual intent, a legal category that applies when a person does not intend to kill but knowingly accepts the risk. The three due to be questioned are instructors Luís Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, Maicon Fernandes Cintra and Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves. Evelyne dos Santos Gonçalves also faces a charge of procedural fraud.
Maria Eduarda died after being launched without a rope during a rope jump in Limeira. Video recorded by people at the site appears to show her being thrown from a height of about 40 meters without appropriate safety equipment. According to the latest case update cited in the report, 22 witnesses have already testified.
Meta had not responded to a request for comment by the time the report was published. The defendants’ lawyers had also been contacted for comment.
Sources: CNN Brasil.