Latin America

Google Brazil restricts access to controversial video

Google in Brazil has blocked a video attacking a local mayoral candidate which runs counter to the country’s strict pre-vote electoral laws.

This comes just a day after the president of Google Brazil was detained.

The company officials have confirmed that they restricted access to YouTube video that allegedly slanders Alcides Bernal, a candidate for mayor of Campo Grande, in the Mato Grosso do Sul state.

“We have no choice but to block the video in Brazil,” AFP quoted Google Brazil director Fabio Coelho as saying in a statement on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, police arrested Google’s most senior executive in Brazil, Fabio Jose Silva Coelho over the company’s refusal to block the video.

Reports say that during the last week the company has received several court orders calling on the Internet search giant to remove the video from YouTube.

Meanwhile, on September 25, a Brazilian court banned a recent film that disrespected Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), giving YouTube 10 days to remove the film’s trailer from its website.

The National Islamic Union, a Brazilian Muslim group, brought the lawsuit against YouTube owner Google Inc for posting the controversial film, saying it was offensive and a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

The court’s decision came just hours after Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff criticized “Islamophobia” in Western countries during her speech at the United Nations in New York City.

Last Friday, about 500 people including Muslims, Catholic Christians and Jews congregated near Sao Paulo’s Shia mosque and marched peacefully towards a nearby church holding placards and chanting anti-US slogans.

The American-made anti-Islam movie is said to have been made with the help of Zionist donations totaling USD 5 million.

The sacrilegious movie was followed by publication of several cartoons mocking Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo on September 19.

Muslims in Iran, Turkey, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Australia, Britain, the United States, France, Belgium, and several other countries have held many demonstrations to condemn the blasphemous movie over the past week. Protests were also held in Kashmir and the Gaza Strip.

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