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Google says LATAM aims to evade US free speech protections

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Video on YouTube makes child sexual abuse allegation

By Blake Brittain

June 12 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google sued

Chile-based LATAM Airlines in U.S. federal court in San

Jose, California on Thursday, seeking a declaration that

Brazilian courts cannot force the tech giant to take down a

YouTube video in the United States that accused a LATAM employee

of sexually abusing a child.

Google in the lawsuit said that LATAM was attempting to

"make an end-run" around protections for free speech under the

U.S. Constitution by suing in Brazil to force the video's

removal worldwide.

Spokespeople for LATAM did not immediately respond to a

request for comment on Google's allegations.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement that

the company has "long supported the legal principle that courts

in a country have jurisdiction over content available in that

country, but not over what content should be available in other

countries."

Right-wing social media companies Trump Media and Rumble

filed a similar lawsuit in Florida in February against a

Brazilian judge who had ordered them to remove the U.S.-based

accounts of a leading supporter of former Brazilian President

Jair Bolsonaro. A federal judge decided in the case that the

companies were not required to comply with the order in the

United States.

According to Google's lawsuit, U.S. citizen and Florida

resident Raymond Moreira posted two YouTube videos in 2018 of

his 6-year-old son outlining allegations of sexual abuse that

the child said he experienced from a LATAM employee while

traveling as an unaccompanied minor.

Moreira sued LATAM in Florida in 2020 over the alleged

abuse, which led to a confidential settlement.

LATAM sued Google in Brazil in 2018 seeking an order to

remove the video from YouTube, which Google owns. Brazil's

highest court is set to consider next week whether it has the

authority to order Google to take down the video worldwide.

Google asked the court in California on Thursday to declare

that LATAM cannot force the tech giant to remove the video in

the United States.

Canada's Supreme Court upheld an order for Google to remove

some search results worldwide in a separate case in 2018. A

California judge halted that order's U.S. enforcement in 2017.