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Google Brazil Exec "Detained" For Refusing YouTube Takedown Order
h00manist writes that, as promised, "The police executed an order to detain Google's top executive in Brazil (Original in Portuguese), Fábio José Silva Coelho. Google refused an order to remove a YouTube video which accused a mayoral candidate of several crimes. Police say he will be released today; Brazilian law for the case allows for a one-year max sentence. Streisand Effect, anyone?"
It's not like the Brazilian court is trying to hide something with this order that now it will be 10x public, you know?
I don't like most of limitations to free speech, but you know, I also don't like transnationals corporations acting like they are above the law of the (several) countries they operate.
A court order in Brazil gave an order, and google was in contempt, don't like it? change the law or don't operate there.
Hints:
Google works on the internet. The internet works everywhere (Except Iran, apparently).
Google has no datacenters in Brazil.
So Brazil was trying to enforce ITS laws in OTHER countries, something everyone here is quick to condem when the US does it.
Failing to force the US to change its laws, Brazil takes hostages.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
It doesn't matter where the datacenter is located (good luck trying to enforce your rigths to your information based on that)
What it does matter, is that google is incorporated (twice apparently) in Brazil
Google Belo Horizonte
Google Brasil Internet LTDA
Av. Bias Fortes
n 382 6th floor, Lourdes
Belo Horizonte
30170-010
Brazil
Phone: +55-31-2128-6800
Fax: +55-31-2128-6801
Google São Paulo
Google Brasil Internet Limitada
Av. Brigadeiro Faria Lima
n 3900 5th floor, Itaim
São Paulo, 04538-132
Brasil
Teléfono: +55-11-3797-1000
Fax: +55-11-3797-1001
http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/locations/
They don't have a datacenter but they do have a local office and Google is a registred company in Brazil so they either (a) comply with local laws or (b) close the company local office. It really is that simple.
I'm brazilian. The law here in this aspect is simple: if a judge commans something in a court order, whoever is ordered to must comply. Probably Google Brazil had the court order served, but didn't comply for some reason (slack, or someone at a lower position had forgot or intended to prank his manager for the kicks). As ultimately the responsible is the head of operations, the police went right to the guy. I believe it's not wise to mess with a judge anywhere on this planet. If it makes people more relieved about Brazil, Google's executive wasn't arrested, but detained (these aren't the same thing in Brazil). He was called to take responsibility, not to be punished.
I can't resist to reply to you again, as it seems you are making the same point over again.
Yes, if there is a law that sets price caps locally on Texas, or at Federal level, Gazprom USA would be regulated for the oil it sells there. What it shouldn't be regulated if for the oil Gazprom Russia sells to China.
This unregulated international corporatism you are advocating for is something bad for all the citizens in the world.
I'm the guy who posted comments before yours.
Google complies with brazilian court orders by the thousands every year, and it should be no news. Google complies with court orders from every country it has a headquarter.
Mr. Fabio, a brazilian citizen, Google employee and top executive, may not be able to obey the order by himself, but he's capable to command another Google employee to do so. So ultimately he is the main responsible person.
I don't know how Google Brazil is run, but every company around the world with 10+ employees needs an hierarquical structure where someone at the top delegates to his tenants and it goes down under to the cleaning guy. And people make mistakes, get dismissed and so on. Someone messed up and will have to take the heat. And Mr. Fabio wasn't imprisioned, he just had to go to a police department to answer some questions and to be made aware of the problem and act upon.
If an USA judge issued a court order the police must comply, be the target BillG, the elusive Embraer secretary or whoever. If the secretary is an USA citizen, that's it, if not the diplomacy will take place, as every UN member would expect to act.
Burning flags is not a brazilian national sport. We're pretty orderly (fanfare to the common man playing in the backgound) and working people.
There are no double standards here. Brazil respects international laws pretty much as everyone else. Please remember Flight 1907, when USA pilots downed a Boeing full of brazilian citizens just because some USA senator didn't want to be tracked in brazilian airspace by brazilian airspace authorities. Nobody burned USA flags, the pilots were repatriated to USA and propably nothing wrong happened to them, despite reaping more than one hundred brazilian souls. Because we respect the law.
Brazilian judges aren't pluripotent tyrants in constant tantrum spree. They're accountable and overviewed by the legal system, that can punish the judge and overrule him/her if appropriate, just as every really civilized western country with representatives elected by the people.
Sorry, but nothing to see here. Move along.