UNESCO New Zealand

Three Google executives were convicted in Milan, Italy on February 24 this year over a bullying video posted on the site - a verdict greeted with horror by online activists, who fear it could open the gates to such prosecutions and ultimately destroy the internet itself. Google, denies the charges and considers the trial a threat to freedom on the Internet.

The case follows an investigation by Vivi Down, a group for people with Down's syndrome, which alerted prosecutors to the 2006 video showing an autistic student in Turin being beaten and insulted by bullies at school. In the footage, the youth is being mistreated while one of the teenagers puts in a mock telephone call to Vivi Down.

However, Google considers the trial a threat to freedom on the Internet because it could force providers with an impossible task - pre-screening the thousands of hours of footage uploaded every day onto websites like the Google-owned YouTube.

Prosecutors and civil plaintiffs insist they don't want to censor the Internet, and maintain the case is about enforcing Italy's privacy rules as well as ensuring large corporations do their utmost to block inappropriate content, or quickly delete it.

"It's the first case of this kind in Italy and Europe,' said Alessandro del Ninno, a lawyer and expert on Internet law.
'The risk is that it will force providers to preventively control the content, something that goes against the very nature of the Internet.'

What are the issues here?

• Should this clip have been posted?
• If not why not - Can you justify your stand? Would you regard this as censorship and a curb on freedom of expression?
• If you feel the clip should have been posted, how would you explain your stand?
• If it's a defence of freedom of expression, where would you draw the line between the acceptable and the unacceptable.
• What are the rights of the person being filmed - for example, rights to privacy?
• Should a world-wide technology respect the differing cultural, social and spiritual aspects of individual countries? Could that lead to increased censorship?

Useful link: http://www.globalnetworkinitiative.org/issues/Google_Italy.php