29 November 2006
The episode of the young man suffering from Down’s syndrome who was maltreated in class, filmed and published on Google Video, has had as a consequence an investigation into Google. This is a situation that cannot be understood.
It is in fact not materially possible for Google and for the major websites and portals to verify every item of content before it is published.
If this were requested and imposed, the natural consequence would be the end of the Internet where millions of pages are published every day. Instead the ones to be severely punished are the young people who attacked their companion who could not defend himself. Their parents should be summonsed too. Civil education should be taught in school.
The only result of incriminating Google is to divert attention from the problem which is criminality among young people, to the finger that is pointing to it. To put the Internet on an equal footing with the publishing industry from a legal point of view, as has been proposed, is not realistic.
Companies should be asked to put in controls that are in the realm of the possible, but above all the authorities must be supplied with the identities of those who are responsible for each individual publication.
Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Information