Brazilian judge orders Google to reveal identity of Orkut user

A federal court in São Paulo has ordered the Brazilian division of online content giant Google to supply within 15 days the identity of Google's networking Web site Orkut suspected of engaging in "illegal" activities, a BNamericas.com report said.

The court was acting on an order by the attorney general's office, which had been investigating the use of Google's online community service Orkut as a virtual meeting point for racist and pedophile groups, the report said.

Google will face a $23,254 fine for every day it refuses to reveal the identity of the users, according to local media reports.

Google's Brazilian unit said it could not access such information because it was stored on servers in the US controlled by the parent company, the report said.

Earlier, Google added a disclaimer clause to Orkut's pages urging posters to use the site responsibly, and reminding them that such rules were spelled out in the site's terms of service documents, according to the report.