Another Scary Story About Doing Business Internationally
In the category of "My lawyer included this in the parade of horribles when detailing the risks, but I never took this possibility seriously," according to the WSJ, Italian prosecutors are preparing to file charges of defamation and violation of privacy -- both criminal charges under Italian law - in a Milan court against four Google executives over a video showing a disabled student taunted by his peers uploaded onto Google's Italian-language website. The Google executives expect to be charged due to allegedly failing to adequately control the content of the website.
The four executives targeted are the top legal representative and chairman of the board of Google's Italian unit at the time; another Google Italy board member at the time; an executive responsible for Google's privacy policies in Europe; and the then-head of Google Video for Europe. These executives were targeted because they had a position of authority over the operations involved. Google, needless to says, has stated that it acted responsibly and within the law.
Without commenting on the merits of the case, the possiblity of criminal prosecution for executives will likely chill international operations -- especially of US companies that aren't familiar with European privacy laws. Even if they did everything they could, I know I certainly wouldn't want to be in the meeting with the legal department when these indictments are handed down!
