Google Executives Convicted Following Abuse Video In Italy

The Google executives who were accused of 'violating privacy' by allowing the transmission of a video in 2006, which showed an Italian boy being bullied by his classmates, have been served with a 6 month prison sentence by a Milan court, Reuters has reported. The boy was said to suffering from Down's Syndrome. 

Four Google executives were accused of violating the privacy of the youth of which three were sentenced to six months prison as the fourth one was cleared of all charges. The matter had been bought forward by Vivi Down, an Italian group representing people with Down's Syndrome and the boy's father. 

The incident had occurred in 2006 when a group of Italian school kids had recorded a video of their classmate being bullied by them and had later uploaded the video on Google Video, which was later integrated with the popular YouTube service. 

The video was filmed by four male students in Turin and recorded from a mobile phone. 

According to Reuters, David Drummond, Google's senior vice-president and chief legal officer, George Reyes, the former chief financial officer, and Peter Fleischer, the US firm's global privacy counsel, were convicted of invasion of privacy meanwhile Arvind Desikan, a senior product marketing manager, was acquitted.