In a claim proposal against Google, the famous Brazilian TV presenter Xuxa Meneghel had denied her request of exclusion of any search result with the expression “Xuxa paedophile” as well as images without clothes, regardless the context.
The Rio de Janeiro State Court judge Ms. Valeria Dacheux based her decision on the article 18 of the Law 12,965/2014, known as the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet. This article determines that internet application providers, such as Google, can only be held responsible for the content produced by third parties if, after a specific court order, the providers do not take the steps to make such content unavailable.
Regardless, the unavailability of the content was not determined, since Xuxa has plead a generic request for exclusion of reference that would offend her honour and image, but did not provide the URLs related to the search results.
The court decision relies on precedents on the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice, which provides that the indication of the URL is crucial because it allows the provider to locate precisely and exclusively the content.
Additionally, the court has weighted that Xuxa was not prevented from seeking the right to be forgotten, but it has recognized that Google is not liable to implement the right to be forgotten and perform a digital censorship, which would violate the freedom of speech and the right to information.
It is worth to mention that the right to be forgotten was subject to a public hearing in the Brazilian Supreme Court on the 12 and 13 June, with the purpose to provide background information to the judgment of the case known as “Aída Curi Case”. Aída Curi was a young girl brutally assassinated in the 50’s and her brothers filled a claim against the television channel Rede Globo, due to an episode of the TV show “Linha Direta Justiça” which was dedicated to describe her death in details.
This will be the first time that the Supreme Court will judge a case involving the right to be forgotten, which holds as its main core the harmonization of constitutional principles of freedom of speech and the right to information with the protection of dignity and inviolability of the honour and intimacy.
*By Carolina Garcia Lomba, trainee of the TMT team