Brazillian Court Fines Google for Offensive comments against woman

RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian judge has ordered Google to pay 5,000 reais ($2,847) to a woman for not removing offensive comments about her posted on the Orkut website.

Judge Marco Aurelio Froes ruled in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday that the US-based company was liable because it did not remove the postings on the social networking site.

Froes said Google was not to blame for the statements, but it should have pulled the postings when the woman asked that they be removed due to their “offensive” content.

Google did not remove the postings until the court issued an initial order in favour of the unidentified plaintiff.

The US tech giant was initially ordered to pay 10,000 reais ($5,694), but Froes said in his latest ruling that the sum was “excessive”.

Google’s public relations firm said the company did not have a comment because it had not yet reviewed the ruling.

–EFE