Miskin IT News

There has been widespread criticism of Italy’s ruling to convict Google executives for their ‘role’ in displaying a gruesome video on the Google Videos website that was uploaded by a registered user in 2006. The executives were given six month suspended sentences even though Google removed the video after first initial complaints and that the accused had absolutely no knowledge of the video or what is was until after the event.  If the ruling is held then it will have massive repercussions on the Internet in Italy and possibly the rest of the world as it essentially enforces mass censorship of what service providers can display.

Service providers including those in the EU are protected by law providing they remove any illegal film or act when the relevant authorities ask. This ruling is simply against EU law and is likely to have been heavily influenced by Prime Minister Berlusconi who has strong opinions about the censorship of the Internet.

Italy is not the only government that is demanding changes to the Internet. China is well known to have widespread censorship of the Internet, Australia recently have put forward plans to ‘filter’ the Internet and the UK Labour government may soon be taxing the Internet.