An interesting legal case is developing in Italy which could result in YouTube being forced to moderate all videos uploaded to the site (that’s about 200,000 videos a day).

At the moment, YouTube’s policy is to accept every video as respecting the rules and regulations, and let them appear live on the site. Only when someone complains about the nature of a video, be it due to copyright issues, or decency issues related to violence or sex, does the video get removed from the site.

However, with four Google executives being taken to court in Italy over a video showing mental abuse, I can foresee this policy being changed in the future.

Taunting Of A Disabled Teenager

According to Times Online, the 191-second video clip showed a disabled teenager with down syndrome being taunted by his peers and was uploaded to Google Video Europe in 2006.

Google removed the video within hours of being notified about the nature of the clip back in September 2006, but it was up long enough that a two-year investigation into the incident decided it amounted to a breach of privacy and was defamatory.

Four Google Executives

Although Google co-operated fully with the investigation, Italian prosecutors have decided to press charges against four executives, including the chairman of Google Italy, a Google Italy board member, the guy in charge of privacy policy in Europe, and the then head of Google Video for Europe.

A Google spokesman said:

“We believe that this proceeding is not about Google Video and what happened, but about the internet as we know it – an open and free environment.”

As The Law Stands

Google certainly seems to have the law on its side, with EU legislation, incorporated into Italian law, states that sites don’t have to monitor third-party content, only being required to remove any that are deemed offensive when notified of it.

This seems to be the first time that Google employees have been required to attend court over a case such as this, although there have been many cases surrounding content removed from Google Video, and YouTube in the past.

Legal Obligations

There was a case heard in the UK last year over a clip removed from YouTube that appeared to show a 23-year-old woman being sexually assaulted, but Google wasn’t dragged in to the case.

This case, and the result of it, could have a huge impact on the legal obligations of sites, not only Google-owned properties, but others as well. If Google is found to be liable, then expect a change in policy to follow soon after.

However, these sorts of cases are nothing new for Google and given how these things usually roll out in court I expect this will take a few years going through the legal system, with Google finally being victorious.

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