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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

(Adds comment from LATAM in paragraph 3)

By Blake Brittain

June 12 (Reuters) - Google sued Chile-based LATAM

Airlines in U.S. federal court on Thursday, seeking a

declaration that Brazilian courts cannot force the tech giant to

take down a YouTube video in the U.S. that accused a LATAM

employee of sexually abusing a child.

Alphabet's Google, which owns YouTube, said in the

lawsuit 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.

"LATAM has not received any official communication about the

court case," the company told Reuters.

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 filed in San Jose, California,

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. 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.