By Isabela Fraga
Attempting to safeguard the public image of Brazilian federal deputies, the Chamber of Deputies’ attorney general, Cláudio Cajado, proposed a plan to Google that would streamline the process to remove online content deemed offensive by the country’s legislature, according to the lower house’s website. The Chamber files nearly two requests every month to remove online videos it considers defamatory, reported the website G1. The majority of this material is hosted by Blogger and YouTube, both services owned by Google.
Currently, there are almost 10 injunctions filed against websites and Internet users to remove material considered defamatory, according to G1. One of the representatives who would benefit the most from the new rules would be federal Deputy Anthony Garotinho, who has complaints against 11 online videos, according to the magazine Época. Ironically, Garotinho received a libel complaint about his own blog on Monday, March 19, from a judge he accused of involvement in a conspiracy.
“We have to count on the good will of Google’s management and an understanding of the importance of measures like these to the life of our country and democracy,” Cajado said on the Chamber’s website.
Cajado’s initiative, however, leans closer to censorship than democracy, according to sociologist Sérgio Amadeu, professor at the Federal University of ABC. “It is, in actuality, a clear attempt to curb freedom of expression,” Amadeu observed. “It’s a situation where representatives in public office come in contact with platforms operated by private businesses and used by the public and they make censorship agreements that could not be made in the public space,” he explained.
This is not the first time Google has been involved in discussions over freedom of expression and censorship because of content Brazilian politicians found offensive . In September 2012, the head of Google Brasil’s operations was arrested after failing to act on a court order to remove videos considered offensive by a mayoral candidate.
Click here to see a timeline from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americaschronicling court-driven censorship in Brazil.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
