Three Google executives were convicted in Italy over a YouTube video that showed the abuse, bullying, harassment and taunting of an autistic boy aged 6. The Italians say Google monetized the video by running ads next to it. Prosecutors argued that Google handled user data — and used content to generate advertising revenue and hence broke Italian privacy law, which  prohibits the use of someone’s personal data with the intent of harming him or making a profit.

Aside from this horrendous episode there are larger implications here not just for Google but for every company that is offering an online service.

Basically the Italian court is saying that if you control the means of communication you are responsible for all content delivered from it. In this case the accused were not even aware of the video nor did they live in Italy. The Italians should have fined the Google at best not charged the Google employees as they were not directly responsible.

The Italians also contend that Google successfully censors videos and content in China and that it should do the same in situations like this.

The NYTimes has a great story on the larger implications of this.