Google's quiet 'precedent'

Google's agreement to turn over user data to the Brazilian government may turn out to be a precedent for how the social networks deal with governments (including those of their home countries), and vice versa. Google's Orkut - with 20 million total users, about half of them in Brazil - is that country's No. 1 social site. Brazilian authorities recently threatened a lawsuit to get Google, which last year refused to turn over search data to the US Justice Department, to give them "data that could help identify [Orkut] users accused of taking part in online communities that encourage racism, pedophilia and homophobia," the Washington Post reported. As the Christian Science Monitor put it, "Google's corporate motto is 'Don't be evil.' But the … company recently found itself defending the privacy of alleged pedophiles and racists against São Paulo's attorney general." He threatened Google with a daily fine of $23,000, and Brazilian human rights groups - which counted "some 40,000 images of child porn posted on Orkut between Jan. 30 and Aug. 22" and "thousands of communities dedicated to racism, violence, anti-Semitism, and cruelty to animals" - were "infuriated" by what they saw as Google's stonewalling, according to the Monitor.

Google eventually turned over user data to Brazil that was much more specific than what the Justice Department had earlier asked for ("Google's entire search index, billions of pages and two months' worth of queries," according to the Post). The Internet freedom desk at Reporters Without Borders said it was good that Google made Brazilian authorities go directly to headquarters in the US, so that the American justice system could be involved. At some point, Reporters Without Borders told the Monitor, US Internet companies will have to deal with repressive regimes with regard to social networking. Google said it intends to be cooperative with governments as long as their "requests are reasonable and follow an appropriate legal process."