Italian judge finds Google executives criminally responsible for content

March 2, 2010

In a verdict that could have worldwide implications for Internet freedom, three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws last week, the first case to hold the company’s executives criminally responsible for the content posted on its system, The New York Times reports. Italian prosecutors said Google was too slow to remove a widely viewed video showing a group of teenage boys harassing an autistic boy. The ruling suggests that Google is not simply a tool for its users, as the company contends, and that the search and advertising giant could be regulated like any other media company that provides content.

The Italian move to hold Google or its executives responsible for the text, photographs or third-party videos available through its online services like YouTube challenges the company’s business model of providing users access to as much digital content as possible, regardless of its origins or ownership. The ruling poses a similar challenge to other Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter, the Times reports.

In Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns most private media and indirectly controls public media, several measures are pending in Parliament that seek to impose controls on the Internet. Berlusconi’s critics call the measures an attempt to stave off competition from the Web and to control public debate.

A judge in Milan sentenced the Google executives in absentia to six-month suspended sentences for violation of privacy, but cleared them of defamation charges, the Times reports. If the ruling prevails on appeal, Google will be expected in Italy to monitor the content it hosts — something a company spokesman called impossible, considering that 20 hours of video are uploaded to its site every minute. — Greg Beaubien
 

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