Brazilian judges have fined Facebook Inc and Google Inc thousands of dollars for failing to remove gruesome photographs 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.
IN THE MORGUE
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 (US$15,452) 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.”
The ruling — made on June 25 — ordered “an immediate stop of the dissemination of such degrading images on the worldwide computer web.”
NON-COMPLIANCE
In case of non-compliance, Google Brazil and Facebook could face fines of 10,000 reais per day, Fabian ordered in the ruling published on the court’s Web site.
Internet privacy is becoming an ever more important issue as social media, online data and cellphone cameras become increasingly ubiquitous.
Last month Google said it was working to remove sexually explicit images posted of people without their content, acknowledging that these images were often misused.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day