The Milan prosecutor is reportedly investigating two legal representatives of Google for being accessories to 'aggravated defamation' after the Internet search engine posted a video showing the violent bullying of a disabled teenager, an AFP report said.
The AFP report said the two Americans could be held accountable for not controlling the content of the site, in what might be a landmark case in the regulation of the Internet, ANSA reported.
The footage, filmed by students in a Turin high school, shows a Down's Syndrome teenager being violently bullied by four students and watched by 15 more without protest.
The four students and the teacher, absent at the time of the bullying but responsible for the class, were also being investigated, the AFP report said.
A lawyer from the Guido Camera association welcomed the decision, saying it was 'a very important step contributing to shed some light on the world of the Internet.'
The investigation, the first stage in a judiciary process, was prompted by a complaint from Vividown, a Down's Syndrome campaign group, the report further said.