Google's Brazil chief detained in YouTube case

In this Nov. 22, 2011 photo, Google executive Fabio Jose Silva Coelho poses for a portrait in Sao Paulo, Brazil. / Agencia O Globo,AP Photo/Carol Carquejeiro

(AP) RIO DE JANEIRO - Google Inc.'s head of operations in Brazil was detained by the country's federal police Wednesday after the company failed to heed a judge's order to take down YouTube videos that the court ruled violate Brazilian electoral law.

The detention came as another court ordered YouTube to remove clips of an anti-Islam film that has been blamed for deadly protests by Muslims around the globe, both joining a spate of court-ordered content-removal cases against Google's video-sharing website in Brazil.

The arrest of Google executive Fabio Jose Silva Coelho was announced in Sao Paulo. A press release issued by the federal police said he was not expected to remain in jail and should be released later in the day after signing a document promising to appear in court.

Brazil's strict electoral laws limit what critics can say on television, radio and the Internet about candidates for office. Ahead of municipal elections next month, Google has received repeated requests to remove Web videos that allegedly violate those restrictions.

A judge in Mato Grosso do Sul state ordered Coelho's arrest Tuesday because the company had not removed YouTube videos that make incendiary comments about an alleged paternity suit aimed at Alcides Bernal, who is running for mayor of the city of Campo Grande. That ruling also included a statewide, 24-hour suspension of Google and YouTube. It was not immediately clear if and how that aspect of the ruling might be carried out.

Google said Tuesday that it was appealing the decision. "Being a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted on its site," the company said in an emailed statement from Sao Paulo.

A judge in the southern state of Parana earlier ordered Google to pay $500,000 for each day that it balked at fulfilling an order to remove other videos criticizing a candidate. In the northeastern state of Paraiba, a judge ordered the imprisonment of another Google executive in Brazil, also for not removing videos from YouTube attacking a mayoral candidate, but that order was overruled by a higher court.

Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which promotes digital freedom, said the rash of Brazilian cases was "disappointing, but not surprising" ahead of the country's nationwide municipal elections on Oct. 7 and Oct. 28.

"The Internet is global, but laws are made nation by nation," she said. "There is a struggle between nation states and their laws and the freedom of expression policies of companies that host content all over the globe."

In a separate case pending against Google, Sao Paulo-based judge Gilson Delgado Miranda gave the site 10 days to remove video clips from "Innocence of Muslims," which has angered many Muslims around the world by its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed and his followers as thugs. After the 10-day window, Google will face fines of $5,000 a day for every day the clips remain accessible in Brazil, according to the statement on the court's website.

The company did not respond to requests Wednesday for comment about the case.

The "Innocence of Muslims" ruling resulted from a lawsuit by a group representing Brazil's Muslim community, the National Union of Islamic Entities, which claimed the film violates the country's constitutional guarantee of religious freedom for all faiths.

In a statement on the group's website, Mohamad al Bukai, the head of religious matters for the Sao Paulo-based organization, hailed the ruling.

"Freedom of expression must not be confused with giving disproportionate and irresponsible offense, which can provoke serious consequences for society," al Bukai said.

Dozens of people have been killed in violence linked to protests over "Innocence of Muslims," which portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester.

Attempts by courts and officials in several countries to remove the clips have revived the debate over freedom of expression.

The judge in the Brazilian case acknowledged that banning content from sites like YouTube is a thorny issue, according to excerpts of the ruling cited in the National Union of Islamic Entities' statement.

"This type of jurisprudence cannot be confused with censorship," Miranda is quoted as writing. In the excerpts, the judge defines censorship as "the undue restriction of the civic consciousness."

YouTube routinely blocks video in specific countries if it violates laws there. It also removes video deemed to infringe copyrights, show pornography, contain hate speech or violate other guidelines. However, none of those restrictions had been applied in Brazil to the "Innocence of Muslims."

Google is now selectively blocking the video clips in countries that include Libya and Egypt. Google has said it made the decision to block the video in such places due to "the sensitive situations" there.

Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation questioned whether a ban was really necessary in Brazil, which has seen no protests or rioting that have swept the Muslim world in recent weeks.

"The notion that there's a need to take it down to prevent violence is ludicrous," she said.

Miranda's ruling came on the same day that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff addressed the United Nations and urged an end to prejudice against Muslims.

Google has said it has been so inundated by requests from governments worldwide to remove online content that it has begun releasing a summary of the demands, most relating to legitimate attempts to enforce laws on issues ranging from personal privacy to hate speech.

But Google, which has been locked in a high-profile battle with China's leaders over online censorship in the communist nation since 2010, says it increasingly fields requests from government agencies trying to use their power to suppress political opinions and other material they don't like.

Brazilian government agencies alone submitted a total of 194 content-removal requests during the final half of last year, according to a summary released by Google in June. Running just behind that was the United States, where police, prosecutors, courts and other government agencies submitted 187 requests to remove content over the same period.

Brazil and other parts of Latin America are crucial to Google's growth strategy. Company executives have said that Latin America is the country's fastest-growing market.

[ksmit2]

Sometimes it's just not a good idea to have an Google office in a foreign country. The shrug your shoulder, "we don't "Make" the videos"
excuse doesn't fly in a lot of places. These websites could do a lot more to monitor or block offensive content if they wanted to.

[solitaryfracture]

GOOGLE thinks they can get away with this crap in other countries.
Think again. When a gov says take it down. you better take it down or you will be in JAIL.

[reddit_]

Why is it that some seem to care more about the video than what is happening in Syria?

[BWB2020]

Perhaps because it is not really their business what goes on in Syria's civil war, while it is their business if they risk being associated with a hate-filled lie-based video posted by an idiotic sociopath, which can be used by people with a specific agenda to paint western society, and therefore them, in an extremely negative light, even as they themselves paint other societies in a negative light based on the actions of some members.

[Pace_Man]

Just remember civilization and humanity let us to respect each other and recognize that everybody's freedom ends where others' begins.

[ludlt]

Boycott Brazil's Summer 2016 Olympics.

[ludlt]

Boycott Brazil's Summer 2016 Olympics.

[notvno]

We live in a world full of hypocrite.
You just don't know the terror that most women live under the mohavita regime. Where women became second class citizen if that. Adolescent girls are married off to seniors 60 times their age(pedophiles). Most of the female workers that work in the Middle East are raped by their employers. You tell me now if you have never been there or seen any of these atrocities perpetrated against women on a daily basis. Women out of shame or fear to be put to deaf will not come forward to say that they were raped. Why are these hypocrites so angry about a film that talks about issues they are confronted with on a daily basis but no one dares address. No I'm not saying that everyone is the same-no there are many good and real religious people.
Any religion that oppresses or discriminate against any group is no good and they all do; therefore, no religion is good. Start with "The Stoning of Soraya" then read the book "Princess by Sultana".

[BWB2020]

It is their business to work to shape their own society as they wish, as many are working to do.

It is not your business to justify provocation of other societies because they practice the same discrimination as your own, the only difference being in the degree and methodology.

Western civilizations also rape and murder, and there are those who use their own twisted interpretation of religion to justify their actions, but far more do it simply because their position affords them the opportunity. The Catholic church, the Boy Scouts, the military, and Penn State immediately come to mind as just a few examples.

Religion is a tool like a hammer, it can build, or it can destroy. It is the user of the tool that is to be praised or faulted, not the tool.

[Haqeeqa]

Brandon, Muslims were upset because of the assault in that ridiculous low quality and low badge film, when the west will understand that Muslims love their Religion, prophet Muhammad and God more than themselves, their children , their parents or anything else?
also Muslims will do the same thing if Prophet Jesus, Ibrahim, Muses or any other prophet was assaulted.
At the end I don't agree with the violence going on, but the west must understand that freedom of expression comes with responsibilities, you can criticize but you can't hurt and assault another person then say I'm free, this is crime. your freedom is to respect other people rights. CAPITU?
I bet if anyone of them make a movie to deny the Holocaust and you'll see what will happen to him (lifetime jail).

if you want to learn about prophet get it from its source and not from the enemy of Islam, if you want to watch a documentaries about Prophet Mohammad , this documentaries were produced by western media ( BBC and PBS)

- The life of The last Prophet & Messenger (doc by PBS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unh5XfRWxo8

- The Life of Muhammad (2011 BBC documentary)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwEanp05Kns

- Read the life Story of prophet Muhammad:
http://www.muslimvideo.com/tv/mohammad.php

Peace to all and I salute and respect all just people of the west.

[suepoi]

I'm not sure which country you are from, but I don't know of any western culture that would imprison someone for making a video. If someone created a video denying the existence of the holocaust, they may be highly unpopular but they definitely would not be imprisoned. It's protected freedom of speech.

[Procho_]

No one's forcing anyone to use Google. If people are offended by it, they should be not going there and watching that specific video.

Unless Google posts the links to the video everywhere in front of everyone forcefully - either via advertisements or radio/TV, print media/flyers posted on streets, or by putting it on their Brazilian homepage, there is no logic in claiming that Google violated that specific country's laws.

Free speech in one country is against the law in another. Other than blocking off whole countries, it's impossible for Google to keep censoring things as and when someone in some corner of the world expresses annoyance.

[BWB2020]

The point is when those countries request removal, it should be done. I can tell you that in Singapore, individual videos that violate copyrights are not shown, instead you get a frame that says "this video is not available in your country".

If they can block such videos, they can block any videos they choose.

[Brandon_Moy]

If the video is false (it obviously is) than why are the Muslims so angry about it?

[Haqeeqa]

Brandon, Muslims were upset because of the assault in that ridiculous low quality and low badge film, when the west will understand that Muslims love their Religion, prophet Muhammad and God more than themselves, their children , their parents or anything else?
also Muslims will do the same thing if Prophet Jesus, Ibrahim, Muses or any other prophet was assaulted.
At the end I don't agree with the violence going on, but the west must understand that freedom of expression comes with responsibilities, you can criticize but you can't hurt and assault another person then say I'm free, this is crime. your freedom is to respect other people rights. CAPITU?
I bet if anyone of them make a movie to deny the Holocaust and you'll see what will happen to him (lifetime jail).

if you want to learn about prophet get it from its source and not from the enemy of Islam, if you want to watch a documentaries about Prophet Mohammad , this documentaries were produced by western media ( BBC and PBS)

- The life of The last Prophet & Messenger (doc by PBS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unh5XfRWxo8

- The Life of Muhammad (2011 BBC documentary)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwEanp05Kns

- Read the life Story of prophet Muhammad:
http://www.muslimvideo.com/tv/mohammad.php

Peace to all and I salute and respect all just people of the west.

[Haqeeqa]

Brandon, Muslims were upset because of the assault in that ridiculous low quality and low badge film, when the west will understand that Muslims love their Religion, prophet Muhammad and God more than themselves, their children , their parents or anything else?
also Muslims will do the same thing if Prophet Jesus, Ibrahim, Muses or any other prophet was assaulted.
At the end I don't agree with the violence going on, but the west must understand that freedom of expression comes with responsibilities, you can criticize but you can't hurt and assault another person then say I'm free, this is crime. your freedom is to respect other people rights. CAPITU?
I bet if anyone of them make a movie to deny the Holocaust and you'll see what will happen to him (lifetime jail).