Google exec arrested in Brazil over YouTube
updated 04:37 pm EDT, Wed September 26, 2012
President of Brazil Operations arrested over political YouTube videos
Fabio Coelho, president of Google's Brazilian operations, was arrested today in São Paulo after the search giant failed to comply with a court order to take down a YouTube video. As the BBC reported, a Judge ordered Coelho's arrest yesterday, and Brazilian site G1 confirms that Federal Police took Coelho into custody today. Coelho will not remain under arrest, according to the police, but will be released upon signing a document in which he commits to obey a subpoena.
The video in question concerns Alcides Bernal, mayoral candidate for the city of Campo Grande. The video suggests that Bernal is guilty of committing crimes, and regional electoral court judge Flavio Peren ruled yesterday that the videos constituted a violation of local election laws. Peren ordered that the videos be removed, but Google has not complied. The search company's Brazilian arm has filed an appeal of the ruling.
The Bernal video is not the only point of conflict between Google and the Brazilian government. Officials in Brazil have previously, as in the United States, reached out to Google to remove the controversial video "The Innocence of Muslims" from its servers, a request the search company denied.
Brazil and the United States are, according to Google, the top two governments requesting that Google take down content. Between July and December of 2011, Google reports receiving 128 requests for content takedowns from Brazilian officials; the United States followed close with 117 requests. Brazil was also among the top five nations requesting Google user data over that time period.
