There is something special in the investigation into the Signorini-Corona case almost unprecedented in the history of digital lawat least in Italy. According to press sources, the Milan Prosecutor’s Office is also investigating the managers of Google Italy and Google Ireland. The crime hypothesis would be that of defamation to the detriment of Alfonso Signoriniin competition with Fabrizio Corona. But the crime of receiving stolen goods is also assessed.
The accusatory structure is clear. If Fabrizio Corona is responsible for the defamation of the contents of Falsissimo, so are Google’s managers for allowing those contents to remain on YouTube, the Big G platform dedicated to videos. A dynamic similar to that of newspaperswhere there is the responsibility of the journalist and that of the publisher for which the journalist works.
Who is responsible for the content published on social media
Certain. Behind this system there is the idea that YouTube is responsible for the content published on the platform. And here we come to the slightly strange note. In the recent history of technology, platforms that host content have long tried to have no responsibility of published content.
Valeria Marini defends Signorini on Non è la TV: “Many people were hooking him up to join the GF, I saw the messages”
Still in 2018 before the United States Congress Mark Zuckerberg he said he considered Meta one tech company rather than a media company: “I consider us a technology company because the main thing we do is have engineers write code and build products and services for other people.” Without any responsibility.
Over time and with scandals, things have changed and the big platforms have started to take care of it more moderation of their content. At least until the election of Donald Trump they reversed their course. The passage was particularly evident with Meta: since March 2025 the platform has abandoned moderation with fact checking teams to focus only on Community Notes. Choice currently valid only for the United States.
The precedent in Italy: the video with violence at school
There is a precedent in Italy. Even if of many years ago. It’s a story that began in 2006when a video appeared of an autistic boy being teased by a group of kids. The video was shot in Italy and published on Google Videosa platform later replaced by YouTube. In 2010 three executives of Google Italy they were convicted at first instance, precisely for having allowed the publication of the video and for not having respected the boy’s right to privacy.
The process went all the way to Cassation. In December 2013 the sentence was overturned: the Court of Cassation acquitted the three defendants linked to Google. A ruling which at the time traced, at least for Italian jurisprudence, the boundaries of the platforms’ responsibilities.
