The ROK looks relatively less nosy and restrictive an internet society, at least according to The Economist‘s Daily Chart on “Governments’ Content-Removal and Information Requests?. The United States infringes liberty

on both counts, scoring badly on both counts. Brazil, however, looks positively negative, topping both, but is it?.

I’m Brazilian, and I want explain why is the number so high for Brazil. In this country the most popular social network is Orkut, which is owned by Google (apparently few people outside of Brazil and India know much about it). Well, some Orkut profiles have been used by drug dealers, pedophiles, prostitution, hate groups and even for soccer hooligans of rival teams to schedule fights (not kidding). So the Brazilian Judiciary, when informed may ask for the removal of these “offensive” profiles. Google made it sound like Brazil is some kind of tyrannical State, where the web is censored like China which couldn’t be further from the Truth.

Is this all just a problem with Orkut? That just begs a deeper question about law enforcement and internet.

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