Google disagrees with a decision by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF) to remove the Worker’s Cause Party (PCO) channel on YouTube. The tech giant argued that removing the channel amounts to pre-censorship.
STF’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered YouTube and other social media platforms to remove PCO’s accounts. Google went to court, but Moraes’ decision was upheld by STF’s panel.
Google argued that Moraes did not provide sufficient reasons for removing the channel.
“It is true that illegal content can be individually identified and removed, as well as those responsible held accountable; this premise, however, does not authorize the possibility of blocking the entire channel,” Google argued.
It added that, “as for existing content, the order can affect all videos already published on the channel – active since 2008 with 21,000 videos – including those that have never had their legality questioned, of the most varied natures (journalistic, cultural, political, among others), which reflect party ideals and which have no connection with the object of investigation. As for the future content, the order is equivalent to true prior censorship, historically prohibited by the jurisprudence of this Eg. STF.”
Despite supposedly not agreeing with the decision, YouTube complied.
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