PRMan

News that Google lost its landmark privacy case in Milan yesterday sets a dangerous precedent for freedom with YouTube and across similar sites on the web going forward.

If you haven’t seen the news, a judge in Milan imposed suspended sentences on three Google executives, over the posting of a video showing an autistic child being bullied. These executives didn’t upload the video; it was simply uploaded in the manner that thousands of other videos are uploaded on a daily basis.

This sets a worrying precedent that could see a lot more policing on these kind of sites.  The big problem is that the ruling is fundamentally wrong. Prosecuting the people that own the site will only force them to be more careful with what is allowed to go up in the future. This pushes power over what should and shouldn’t be posted into the hands of Google and other site owners – not where it should be. Who is to say the person in charge of vetting videos or other content is the right person to decide what does or doesn’t go up?

For freedom of expression to remain free, the power over what should and shouldn’t be uploaded should be in the hands of the community that populates whichever network is in question. Prosecuting Google is effectively calling for an extra level of scrutiny within the company that will check and approve videos before they go live – this isn’t their job and this system doesn’t currently exist.

Of course, all networks and sharing sites will have their unsavoury elements. And this video was unquestionably a candidate for removal. But the onus for policing the site should not lie in the hands of Google, but in those of the community. When joining an online network or community, you hope that the majority of its population is level-headed and understands rights and wrongs in broadly the same way that you do. For example a liberal wouldn’t join a right-wing political social network and expect to find it populated with like-minded views.  In the case of this video, you would expect that such an abhorrent film would be reported and taken down.

In this case comments were posted but the video was not taken down for over two months. Not responding in a timely fashion to the concerns of the community was clearly unacceptable, and this should be the focus of the debate. The law should never have had to step in and force Google to take down the video, through community feedback it should have recognised the issue and addressed the concerns. i.e. by taking it down before things got out of hand.

The write-up in the Independent exhorted that “Powerful web hosts can – and should – do more to make their sites civilised spaces”. This is true but it cannot come from internal policing – it must come from creating better routes for feedback for collective community policing. If YouTube had taken more notice of the comments about this video, they, and the social media world, wouldn’t be in all this schtum.