Internet Ethics in Italy

The news today from Italy that an Italian court has convicted four Google execs of criminal charges, based on a disturbing video uploaded to Google's pre-YouTube video site, Google Video, has major implications for the online space. The video -- of an autistic teen being insulted by bullies at school -- was viewed 5,500 times in 2 months before it was taken down by the Italian government. Very obviously, it came under fire by the child's parents and activist groups alike.

However, Google's VP and deputy counsel calls the verdict "astonishing" and must of the tech community has come to Google's defense. It is clearly a very loaded, very complex issue that brings both ethics and the future of the internet into question.

Ethically, I cannot imagine a situation where anyone would argue against the negative reactions to this video - and I am sure all would agree to the cruelty associated with both the act itself, as well as the public posting of the occurence.

However, it raises a major set of issues around the role of intermediaries or hosts (like Google), globality in the online community and really, the future of the internet. With blogs, videos and other user-generated content expanding rapidly (and being associated with increased opportunties for monetization), the notion of legal risk being placed on the host or intermediary is incredibly impactful. You can imagine what this may do regarding limiting content -- though the notion and feasibility of policing the online community seems pretty overwhelming. Particularly when thinking about the "long tail" -- where the focus is not on the most popular items but on the value of all of the small parts -- this seems like it would have major implications for discouraging intermediaries and hosts from supporting them, particularly if prison time is the consequence. Additionally, in the event that hosts are forced to shoulder responsibility, I can imagine a trickle-down effect in regards to advertisers. If the hosts can be punished -- what about the advertisers present on that site? Can they take legal recourse against the publishing site that has placed their ad amidst such terrible content? Or, could the party taking legal action also file against the advertisers? The globality issue is also huge here - as this would not have lead to any sort of punitive recourse in the US. Particularly in light of the recent issues in China with Google, it seems like the time may be ripe to begin developing some sort of international code -- though again, I am not sure I can imagine what such a thing would be.

This will definitely be an issue to continue to follow - the implications are huge and, the stakeholders at hand are so diverse (publishers, advertisers, bloggers, passive users etc) that the solution -- should one exist -- is likely to be challenging and controversial.