The city state of Milan is prosecuting Google for defamation and breach of privacy after a video showing a down-syndrome boy being attacked by bullies was posted on the search engine’s video site. Yesterday (16 December), four Google executives were in the stands protesting their innocence under EU laws on Internet freedom.

Google, alongside other Internet sites, is fearful that the case, if won, could set a precedent in Europe.

The European eCommerce Directive, part of Google’s defence yesterday, says that “technical intermediaries” - web content hosts - are not liable for bad content but the creators or video posters are.

To read this EurActiv report in full, see:
euractiv.com/en/infosociety/google-execs-face-prison-user-generated-video/article-188420