Court finds 3 Google Italy executives guilty of bullying

Paris, February 24: A Court in Milan has convicted three Google Italy executives over an internet video showing a handicapped teenager being bullied, Google spokesman Bill Echikson says.

Each executive was given a six-month suspended sentence for violation of privacy, Echikson told AFP today, adding that Google would appeal the verdict.

The video, uploaded on Google Video where it remained for nearly two months in late 2006, showed four students bullying the teenager with Down’s syndrome in front of more than a dozen others who did not intervene.

The bullies were suspended from their school in Turin, northern Italy, for the rest of the academic year over the episode, which sparked a national furore.

–Agencies