Sao Paulo: A day after the Brazilian court ordered to arrest Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, the head of Google Brazil, the US giant has blocked the contentious political video in the country.
Coelho in his post on Friday revealed that Google has lost its final appeal in the case.
Google’s decision to restrict access to the YouTube video, which featured content that slandered a mayoral candidate, came one day after Brazil’s Federal Police detained Coelho for interrogation in the city of Sao Paulo, following Google’s non-compliance with a court order which demanded the removal of the video.
With the controversial video suggesting that mayoral candidate Alcides Bernal, in the city of Campo Grande, was guilty of committing crimes, it was ordered by Judge Flavio Peren – from a regional electoral court in Mato Grosso do Sul state – that Google should take down the video as it violated the election laws in Brazil.
However, after Google failed to comply with the video-removal demand, the judge ordered Coelho’s arrest on Monday. Though the police detained Coelho as per the court’s order, it also clarified that he had been accused of an offence which had “low potential to offend.”
About Google’s eventual decision to block the YouTube video in Brazil, Coelho said that the company will follow its guidelines and the local laws of each country, and added: “If a video is illegal in a particular country, we will restrict access to it, after receiving a valid court order or government complaint.”
