In many ways, social media can make the Web feel a bit smaller. Instead of spending hours on faceless corporate Web sites, I’m chatting with old friends and making new ones, all on my own personal landing pages.
Social networks do such a good job of shrinking the Internet down to my own little social circle that at times I can almost forget that the Web is worldwide. Almost.
Decisions such as the one handed down by an Italian judge this week, which served as the lead story in today’s SmartBrief on Social Media, are a painful reminder of the challenges that a global Web represents. Web sites, content producers and Internet service providers aren’t just playing by one set of rules. There are conceivably as many standards at work as there are nations with courts to rule on them. When your business decides to engage your customers on a social platform, you’re not just staying in your own backyard. You’re potentially rubbing up against scores of legal and cultural boundaries.
Google is acting as if the Italian judge’s ruling against it in a privacy-violation case means the end of the social Web. Its argument is that the Italian decision means companies need to vet content for before it is posted — instead of responding to takedown notices later. That standard may make some companies think twice about allowing users to post content at all, they argue.
My guess is that it might just mean that social networks will need to rethink how they do business in Italy. This isn’t great news if your business is reliant on traffic from Italian social-media users, but it’s unclear how large an impact the decision will have in other places. Regardless of how this plays, the incident is a great reminder of the need to think of business in a global context — even if your company isn’t closing international deals quite yet.
What does the Italian decision mean for Google? For other social-media companies? For users?
Image credit, kuzma, via iStock
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Don't let this decision ruin the social web for all. Let it ruin social media for Italy and see if their decision stands.
It's simple – shut down google in Italy. Perhaps even facebook, e-bay, etc…. they will get it faster than they get the one-day labor strikes!
My take is that companies will have to re-think their moderation policies. Moderation will become important again. The pendulum swings again…
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Italy is–by FAR–too small a player to ruin anything on the scale of the social Web. What we're seeing here is a lot of posturing and political histrionics from a country well known for such behavior, especially in its court system. There's likely going to be a question of whether or not Italy, an EU member state, can unilaterally affect commerce–especially commerce that is so vital to business and communications today–without other member states' approval.
Regardless, this would be bad business for Italy, who could find themselves firewalled from the rest of the social Web and thus crippled. (Of course, as some conspiracy theorists have suggested, this might be a good thing for Italians with media empires, such as Silvio Berlusconi, who could profit from blocking foreign media giants like Google from their markets.)
Ultimately, however, I think the Italian people will decide what they want and the government will have to follow suit. This judicial decision makes no logical sense whatsoever in the context of the prevailing standards, and the Italian government is going to learn that the hard way.
Yes, it was terrible that someone posted the video of a boy with Down Syndrome being bullied–but worse things have been posted to the Web before and subsequently removed for inappropriateness. That is the prevailing international standard (except, perhaps, in places where censorship is de rigeur), and the ship has sailed on how the rest of the world prefers to handle social media content. Italy needs to get with the program or take their marbles and go home.
If I was social in Italy I would move to France, would miss the food but that is what take out if for.
The authorities are still trying to stuff the social media genie back in the bottle, just as they tried to stuff the Web 1.0 genie back in the bottle. I think–and certainly hope–that this unfortunate ruling will ruin Italy before it ruins the social web. Or that the Italians will come to their senses and overrule the judge.
Although I don't think it will have an impact, I don't think the ruling is bad. I think we are too quick on the enter key, and put things on the web, especially social media, without thinking about the consequences. Free speech is great, but maliciousness and illegality is quite another. I'm personally tired of seeing everything, everywhere. Give me a break and start acting like grown ups instead of rebel hackers.
It's a very emotive subject when it comes to victims suffering through no fault of their own, I can see Google's side of the argument and it seems an impossible task to police effectively, but they do need to show that they are tackling this issue head on and come up with better solutions. If it means employing more moderators or developing smarter filters then they more than have the resources to do this.
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I agree with the last two posts. 1. I do not believe it will have such a big impact: and it's a good PR move for Google, cryign out loud to say someone is trying to limit the net's activities… 2. someone HAS to be held responsible for the publication of content, or moderation should be guaranteed within a decent nr of hours from publication. Things like the Down-syndrome guy being bullied should not happen in the first place; but they do. They should not be subject of a video; but they are. At least, they should not be shown to the world without a negative comment or a sign of disapproval…whatever that implies.
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[...] turn to either more regulation or tougher tools. Regulation has its place, but as last week’s privacy decision in Italy shows, it’s easy to swing too far in that direction. Some tools, such as anonymous browsing [...]