Brazil Questioning Google & Orkut Over Illegal Activity
Google Brasil is in a bit of hot water due to the amount of illegal activity which goes on in Orkut. Google Brasil has been asked by authorites to explain why certain Orkut channels are open to such activites including drug dealing and organized crime. In the US MySpace is on the hot seat due to its attraction to sexual predators, so this is not only a Google or Brazilian trend or matter.
Google does not list Orkut as one of their official products but still is responsible given that it employees the people who have developed this service in their time working at Google as their 20% projects. Orkut’s incredible popularity in Brazil (over 73% of the users of Orkut are Brazilian) is also opening up the market to new Google products and strategy.
These summons have been issued after a complaint was filed with the ministry by the nongovernmental organization Safernet. Safernet President Thiago Nunes de Oliveira talked about their experiences with Google and Orkut: “Since June, we have sought out Google to request preventive measures against crimes that are practiced on Orkut, but we never got a response.”
