Google is facing a privacy and defamation case that will certainly shape the boundaries and legal constraints of web publishing. The issue arose after a video circulated around Youtube of an autistic boy in Turin who had been harassed by classmates and filmed on a mobile phone.

Peter Fleischer the chief privacy counsel at Google, David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer, George Reyes, a former chief financial officer, Arvind Desikan, a marketing executive all face trials that could potentially yield jail time for the Google executives. The reason for this is that Italian law hold individuals responsible for corporate actions.

Mr. Fleischer stated that the trial was “a political trial in the sense that there’s a political discussion going on about the role of Internet platforms” (Source of interview: NY TIMES: URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/technology/internet/14google.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss ).

Google’s defense is based on European Union law, which was adopted by member states. User generated videos and content is filtered and edited by the public. Google will take action against this content once users flag the content as objectionable. Google will then remove the content according to its Terms of Service.