YouTube blocked access to a World Cup video by the Paraguayan Senate, which addressed, among other things, the controversy involving Senator Celeste Amarilla and French footballer Kylian Mbappé.
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Lusa
A Directorate-General for Communication of the Upper House of Paraguay released on social network X the incident, clarifying through a statement that the measure did not imply “a sanction to the institutional channel of the House of Senators”.
The session was blocked “due to a copyright claim attributed to FIFA, according to the notice issued by the platform itself,” the press release added.
“Preliminarily, the situation would be related to the automatic detection of audiovisual content protected by copyright, within the framework of the parliamentary debate during today’s session [Wednesday], in which references to the Football World Championship were made and audiovisual excerpts related to this event were displayed,” the Paraguayan Senate added.
For this reason, the press release explained, the Senate TV channel technical team and the Directorate-General for Communication are checking the complaint, in order to “identify the segment in question and take the necessary measures to restore the availability of the recording”.
The statement further clarifies that the programming and transmissions provided for in the legislative agenda “will continue to take place normally”.
The plenary session of Wednesday was marked by the strong confrontation between Amarilla and Mbappé.
Amarilla unleashed the controversy on Saturday by stating on social media that Mbappé “instead of his mother’s milk, sucked coconuts and that the most cultured thing he has ever heard in his life are chimpanzees”, statements that the UN, the French Football Federation and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, considered racist.
The senator reacted in this way to the elimination of Paraguay in the eighth finals of the World Cup against France, with a result of 0-1, decided precisely by a goal of great penalty of Mbappé, which, according to Amarilla, maintained an arrogant attitude during the game.
The football player responded, on the same social network, to the legislator, calling her “woman despicable and unworthy of the position”.
This Wednesday, after a debate of more than five hours, the Paraguayan Senate condemned “the discriminatory and racist expressions” of Amarilla against Mbappé, with a majority resolution, despite the support of several senators to the legislator.
In the plenary session, she raised her voice again and said that the footballer is a “son of a bitch”, stressing that she refused to greet the goalkeeper Orlando Gill at the end of the game.
He also stressed that he refused to mention his “dream” France as the land of Mbappé.
” I refuse to reduce this story, all this huge France, all this huge cultural, artistic and democratic legacy, Mbappé”, he said.
The senator was not alone in the criticisms: Senator Yolanda Paredes supported Amarilla’s position and indicated that Mbappé was “racist and xenophobic” against Paraguayan players, who, according to her, tried to “humble” during the game.
On the other hand, the President of Congress, Basilio Núñez, of the ruling party, criticized Amarilla’s statements and recommended that he become “owner of her silence”.