Brazil court fines Google, Facebook over dead singer pics
Rio de Janeiro
Brazilian judges have fined Facebook and Google thousands of dollars for failing to remove gruesome photos and videos showing the body of a popular singer killed last month in a car crash.
The fines imposed by a court in Goiana, capital of the central Goias state, are the latest blow in an ongoing tussle over Facebook and Google's policies regarding privacy and publication of offensive material.
Cristiano Araujo, 29, was killed alongside his girlfriend in a car crash in Goias on June 24.
Shortly after, photos and amateur video footage emerged on the Internet of his body at the crash site and -- in shocking detail -- at the morgue.
On Wednesday, the images could still easily be found by conducting a Google search.
On Tuesday, Judge Denise Gondim de Medonca fined Google Brazil and Facebook 50,000 reais ($15,500) for "bad faith" in ignoring an earlier order, Brazilian media reported.
In his original ruling, Judge William Fabian, at the same court, blasted the posting of such images as demonstrating "worrying morbidness that is extremely disrespectful to the family's feeling of sorrow."
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