[Op-Ed] Sorry Google, but the buck must stop with you

I must be missing something in the debate about three Google executives being convicted in Italy last week.

It seems that the debate is about freedom of speech, and not, as I thought, about the privacy of a tormented child being made public, and the responsibility and accountability of publishers.

What does freedom of speech have to do with a group of children tormenting a disabled child, filming it and then uploading it to a Google site for the world to see?

That child has a right to privacy — and the fact that the tormenting was filmed suggests that the whole point of the bullying was to upload it to the internet.

By convicting the Google executives, Italian judge Oscar Magi has sent a message to internet publishers that this behaviour will not be tolerated. He has also sent a message to teenagers with video cameras.