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Judge points out Google's failure to remove email over alleged child pornography.

From the Editors

 

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

 

Updated at 11:32

 

Google Brazil was ordered to pay damages after the undue deletion of a lawyer's email account for storing excerpts from the film Amor Estranho Amor (1982), starring Xuxa Meneghel.

 

Judge Clarissa Rodrigues Alves, of the 13th Civil Court of São Paulo/SP, understood that the company did not demonstrate a plausible justification for the deactivation.

 

 

Google is convicted for deleting a drive with a Xuxa film under accusation of pornography. 

Understand the case

 

The lawyer stated that his account was suspended without warning, on the grounds of violating the Terms of Use. 

 

Google initially said the account was deleted because it had been inactive since May 2022, but later claimed the account was deactivated because it stored inappropriate material. 

 

The user explained that the video was an excerpt from the film Amor Estranho Amor (1982), by Xuxa Meneghel, a work of fiction widely known in Brazil. 

 

In the film, Xuxa, who was 18 at the time, plays a 15-year-old call girl who is sold to a brothel. In one of the scenes, the actress simulates sex with a 12-year-old boy.

 

The lawyer classified the company's decision as arbitrary and highlighted that excerpts from the film are available on YouTube, Google's own platform.

 

Finally, the company argued that there was no way to restore the account and denied having made any error in the service provided.

 

Court decision

 

When analyzing the merits, the judge highlighted that the company changed its justifications throughout the process, not presenting a consistent reason for suspending the account. 

 

Given this, the initial deactivation of the author's account was clearly hasty and inappropriate, he said.  

 

The judge also highlighted that the content in question was an excerpt from a film and that a minimally thorough review of the content would be capable of revealing the absence of an illicit nature of the material", adding that it was not "child pornography, in relation to which no crime was found.

 

The existence of controversies regarding the conduct of the protagonist of the work cannot be forgotten, however, the imputation of a crime to the author for storing an excerpt of the work is shown to be absurd in view of the well-known fact that the work was exhibited and sold in the country for years without repression. The supplier's lack of caution also led to the undue imputation of a crime to the author.

 

Given the impossibility of restoring the account and stored data, the judge ordered the conversion of the obligation into losses and damages, the determination of which will be carried out at the time of settlement of the judgment. 

 

Google was also ordered to pay legal costs and attorney fees set at R$1,500.

 

Case :  1055478-64.2023.8.26.0100

 

 link: https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/424002/amor-estranho-amor--google-pagara-advogado-por-excluir-filme-de-xuxa