Brazilian court asks YouTube to remove ‘anti-Islam’ film

Rio De Janeiro: A court in Brazil said it has ordered YouTube to remove clips of the movie that has touched off deadly protests across the Muslim world, the latest in a spate of court-ordered content-removal cases against the video-sharing site in Rio De Janeiro.
Sao Paulo-based judge Gilson Delgado Miranda gave the site ten days to remove videos, which has raised the ire of many Muslims around the world.

After the 10-day window, YouTube’s parent company, Google Inc, will face fines of $ 5,000 a day for every day the clips remain accessible in Brazil, according to the statement posted on the court’s website on late Tuesday.

The company did not respond to requests on Wednesday for comment about the case.

The ruling adds a legal hurdle to Google’s attempts to expand in Brazil. In recent weeks, Brazilian courts have repeatedly ordered the company to remove content from YouTube that was found to violate the country’s strict electoral laws, and a judge on Tuesday ordered the arrest of the head of Google’s operations in Brazil for failing to remove the offending videos.

The ruling resulted from a lawsuit by a group representing Brazil’s Muslim community, the National Union of Islamic Entities, which claimed the film violates the country’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom for all faiths.

In a statement on the group’s website, Mohamad al Bukai, the head of religious matters for the Sao Paulo-based organization, hailed the ruling as a victory.

“Freedom of expression must not be confused with giving disproportionate and irresponsible offense, which can provoke serious consequences for society,” al Bukai said.

At least 51 people, including the US ambassador to Libya, have been killed in violence linked to protests over the anti-Islam film. Attempts by courts and officials in several countries to remove the clips have revived the debate over freedom of expression.

The judge in the Brazilian case acknowledged that banning content from sites like YouTube was a thorny issue, according to excerpts of the ruling cited in the National Union of Islamic Entities’ statement.

“This type of jurisprudence cannot be confused with censorship,” Miranda is quoted as writing. In the excerpts, the judge defines censorship as “the undue restriction of the civic consciousness.”