This is a summary of the interview given by Prof. Giusella Finocchiaro to Vanity Fair, in which she was invited to explain certain legal aspects underlying some particular recent news items regarding online privacy.
Social media allow a choice of the level of visibility for each post published, however for uses such as that of videos illegally circulated online judicial measures are required. Giusella Finocchiaro, the first attorney at law in Italy to teach Internet law, explains how.
Two cases recently appeared in the news in the space of just 24 hours. Firstly, the suicide of a 31-year-old woman, whose hard core videotape had been circulating illegally on the web for more than a year and the case of a 17-year-old girl, whose girl friends recorded and posted a video of her while she was being raped in a disco. Both of these cases raise the question of what the limits of privacy on the Internet are. The head of the Italian Data Protection Authority, Antonello Soro, spoke of « the risk of being pilloried that the Net exposes us to, given the lack of adequate user awareness of the nature of its unlimited space and of the damaging effects that violent communication or the ferocity of ruthless mockery on the part of others may cause».
Lack of legislation was not in question Soro did not speak of a lack of legislation but rather of the need for «appropriate response procedures on the part of the different platforms» and also of another fundamental need: namely «to cultivate respect among people on the Internet». Investment in digital education is fundamental also according to Giusella Finocchiaro, (attorney at law and Professor of Private and Internet law at the University of Bologna, the first chair for this subject in Italy, as laws exist and the legal course followed by Tiziana Cantone (the woman who committed suicide) was the correct one, but timescales remain lengthy and not all people know how to protect themselves.
Add comment