A Brazilian court has ordered the arrest of the head of Google’s local operations, Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, as the company failed to pull out You Tube videos that criticised a mayoral candidate contesting in the coming November election.
The court had ordered YouTube to remove two videos which criticised Alcides Bernal, a candidate for mayor of Campo Grande, in Mato Grosso do Sul state.
The court also ordered Google to block YouTube in the town of Campo Grande, or throughout the entire state, for 24 hours.
Google said it will appeal the court’s decision, and YouTube is not responsible for content uploaded to the site.
Earlier in September this year, an electoral court in the state of Paraiba ordered the arrest of another senior Google executive, Edmundo Luiz Pinto Balthazar, after the company failed to take down a YouTube video criticising a mayoral candidate there.
Google has faced legal issues outside the US for videos posted on its YouTube site.
The company faced violent protests in Libya, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia that were allegedly tied to an YouTube video criticising the Prophet Muhammad.
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Recently, YouTube has been blocked in Pakistan and Bangladesh after the site refused to remove the trailer of an ‘anti Islamic’ movie called "Innocence of Muslims" which has sparked violence in Muslim countries.
