Case Summary and Outcome

Professional race car driver Rubens Barrichello sued Orkut for failing to remove fake social media profiles that depicted the athlete. The Brazilian Superior Court held that internet service providers have no objective liability resulting from third parties publishing unlawful content on the internet, that they cannot be required to exercise prior examination or control of content posted by users, and that they must remove any content known to be clearly unlawful within 24 hours of becoming aware of such, under the penalty of being held liable for damages.

Facts

In 2006, Rubens Barrichello, a Brazilian Formula 1 race car driver, brought suit against Orkut, a social media site that is owned by Google. The suit was brought after Orkut ignored requests from Mr. Barrichello to remove a series of fake social media profiles that depicted the race car driver.

Decision Overview

Orkut was held liable for not removing the content that depicted Mr. Barrichello. The court held that a request to remove content was sufficient legal notification to Orkut.

Furthermore, the Corte Especial do Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) held that an internet provider could not be held liable for third parties publishing unlawful conduct or expected to screen all the content of their users. However, an internet provider must remove clearly unlawful conduct within 24 hours upon becoming aware and can be held liable for damages for failing to do so.

The STJ rejected Mr. Barrichello’s claim that Google had the duty to set up blocks linked to Barrichello’s name. The Court argued that by doing so Google would be incurring censorship and obstruction of freedom of speech. The Court also denied Barrichello’s claim for penalties against Google in the event if other profiles or communities were created using Barrichello’s name or persona, thus understanding that this would be considered a form of preemptive censorship.

Barrichello was awarded R$200.000 (~ $100,000) monetary damages by the District Court, which despite the request of Mr. Barrichello, the Superior Court refused to increase.