Google Fined For Not Blocking Dirty Jokes

from the there-once-was-a-man-from-nantucket dept

sinsi was the first of a few of you to send in the news that Google has been fined by a Brazilian court for not blocking some dirty jokes on its Orkut social network (which, for reasons no one has explained, is only popular in Brazil). This isn't the first time that Google has run into legal trouble over Orkut -- though it appears in every case that the Brazilian courts seem to blame Google for any action done by its users. Have they no safe harbors in Brazil? Do courts really not understand why it makes no sense to blame the service provider for actions of their users? Amusingly, the court even cited the fact that Google censors content in China as a reason for why it could do so in Brazil -- but left out Google's recent decision to pull out of China entirely, rather than continue to filter results.

Filed Under: brazil, censorship, dirty jokes, fines, orkut
Companies: google