Liberty Reborn

Baseless charges have been filed against Google in Italy because of a video posted on a third party site that showed idiotic teens taunting a disabled peer even though once Google became aware of the video it acted to remove it.

Italian prosecutors have indicated that they will press charges against four Google executives over a video which was posted on one of the search giant’s Italian sites in 2006, which showed four youths making fun of a disabled teenager in a classroom in the northern city of Turin.
Magistrates who have recently ended a two-year investigation into the incident claim that the airing of the 191-second clip, which showed the youths making fun of the teenager before hitting him over the head with a box of tissues, amounted to a breach of privacy and was defamatory.

….

Google is understood to have removed the clip from the Google Video site within hours of administrators being notified of its existence in September, 2006.

Google has had several run-ins with governments around the world over its video-sharing site, which does not screen content before it is uploaded and relies on its users to point out offensive content.

…

The Italian investigation was prompted after a group acting on behalf of people with Down’s syndrome was alerted to the video. The four youths who filmed the incident are also reported to have faced criminal prosecution.

A Google spokesman was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that there was no basis for the legal action because under EU legislation - which has been incorporated into Italian law - Google isn’t required to monitor third-party content on its sites. It must only take down offending content when it is notified.

Ok, so some nitwits post a video of them harassing another teen and Google is now accountable? If anything they should be praised for providing a vehicle for stupid people to post actions of the stupid, and sometimes criminal, things they do to help authorities catch them. You would think they would get a medal!

Aside from that however this story and the ruling is strange. The actions, which included battery and assault, as denoted by the report of them “hitting him over the head with a box of tissues” only amounts to “a breach of privacy and was defamatory” on Google’s part?

How so? Google did not take the video and Google did not defame the teen. It only provided the vehicle for those idiots that did to be caught.

Ah, the Fascisti return! You will comply to their arbitrary and capricious rulings. But don’t worry – the trains will run on time and that is all you need worry yourself about.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 1:28 am and is filed under J.J. Jackson's Daily Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.