Google Brazil To Take Down Offending YouTube Video

Google Brazil is set to take down a controversial video from YouTube after the company’s president of operations in the country, Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, was briefly detained by authorities for failing to comply with the original order.

The video at the heart of the dispute accuses Alcides Bernal, a mayoral candidate for the western city of Campo Grande, of committing crimes. Coelho said that he was left with no choice but to remove the video as Google had exhausted all legal routes available to it.

Google Brazil bashing

A regional electoral court in Mato Grosso so Sul state ordered Google to remove the video in question on the grounds that it broke local election laws. Google ignored the request and on Monday, Judge Flavio Peren ordered Coelho’s arrest.

Coelho was released on Wednesday after being interviewed in Sao Paulo. Police made it clear that he would not be detained any longer because the nature of the offence of which he was accused had “low potential to offend.”

Coelho had argued that Google had no responsibility for the content of the videos posted on YouTube, but the user who posted a separate but related video has now removed it. Coelho said the decision taken by the user showed just what a “chilling effect” that the dispute could have on freedom of speech.

In a statement, Coelho stressed that Google would continue to follow the guidelines and legislation of each country and remove videos that were illegal. He added, however, that the company would continue to resist requests that it believed were invalid.

Google has resisted calls to remove the “innocence of Muslims” video from YouTube because it has not violated any of its policies. The video is blamed for violent protests in a number of countries in the Middle East. It has, however, made the video inaccessible in Egypt and Libya.

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