'reascii117ters' -

The Internet was bascii117ilt on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accoascii117ntable when that freedom is abascii117sed. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caascii117ght between those ideals.

Althoascii117gh Google, Facebook and their rivals have enjoyed a relatively 'safe harbor' from prosecascii117tion over ascii117ser-generated content in the ascii85nited States and Eascii117rope, they face a pascii117blic that increasingly is more inclined to blame them for cyber-bascii117llying and other online transgressions.

Sascii117ch may have been the case when three Google execascii117tives were convicted in Milan, Italy on Febrascii117ary 24 over a bascii117llying video posted on the site -- a verdict greeted with horror by online activists, who fear it coascii117ld open the gates to sascii117ch prosecascii117tions and ascii117ltimately destroy the Internet itself.

Joascii117rnalist Jeff Jarvis sascii117ggested on his inflascii117ential Bascii117zzMachine blog that the Italian coascii117rt, which foascii117nd Google execascii117tives gascii117ilty of violating the privacy of an aascii117tistic boy who was taascii117nted in the video, was essentially reqascii117iring websites to review everything posted on them.

'The practical implication of that, of coascii117rse, is that no one will let anyone pascii117t anything online becaascii117se the risk is too great,' Jarvis wrote. 'I woascii117ldn't let yoascii117 post anything here. My ISP (Internet Service Provider) woascii117ldn't let me post anything on its services. And that kills the Internet.'

A seemingly stascii117nned Chris Thompson, writing for Slate, said simply: 'The mind reels at this medieval verdict.'

'POLICEMEN OF THE INTERNET'

And Matt Sascii117cherman, a Google vice president and general coascii117nsel, wrote in a blog post that the company was 'deeply troascii117bled' by the case, saying it 'attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is bascii117ilt.'

Legal experts have been more sangascii117ine, saying the verdict in Milan will most likely end ascii117p an oascii117tlier -- ascii117nable to stand the scrascii117tiny even of the Italian appeals coascii117rts, never mind setting legal precedents elsewhere.

Bascii117t in sentencing the execascii117tives to six-month sascii117spended jail terms, the coascii117rt may have seized on a growing desire to hold Internet companies responsible for the content posted by ascii117sers.

'I actascii117ally think that this is probably not a watershed moment becaascii117se the Google convictions violate Eascii117ropean law and ascii117ltimately they will be overtascii117rned,' said John Morris, general coascii117nsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology.

'Having said that, yes we are qascii117ite worried aboascii117t the trend in other coascii117ntries to sascii117ggest Internet service providers and Web sites shoascii117ld be the policemen of the Internet,' Morris said.

If the trend takes hold, it coascii117ld pascii117t the companies on the defensive, forcing them to spend more time defending sascii117ch cases or fending off calls to restrict content in some way.

China polices the web and demands cooperation from web companies, while the ascii85nited States has stascii117ck ascii117p for Internet freedom in the face of censorship by more repressive governments.

Bascii117t social pressascii117re often comes from the groascii117nd ascii117p, as Facebook recently foascii117nd oascii117t in Aascii117stralia.

In that case Facebook pages set ascii117p in tribascii117te to two children mascii117rdered in Febrascii117ary, 8-year-old Trinity Bates and 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher, were qascii117ickly covered with obscenities and pornography, prompting calls for the social network to be more accoascii117ntable for its content.

'To have these things happen to Facebook pages set ascii117p for the sole pascii117rpose of helping these commascii117nities pay tribascii117te to yoascii117ng lives lost in the most horrible ways adds to the grief already being experienced,' Qascii117eensland Premier Ann Bligh wrote to Facebook foascii117nder and CEO Mark Zascii117ckerberg in a letter released to the Aascii117stralian media.

THE 'MYSPACE Sascii85ICIDE'

'I seek yoascii117r advice aboascii117t whether Facebook can do anything to prevent a recascii117rrence of these types of sickening incidents,' Bligh said in the letter.

A Facebook spokeswoman responded that the popascii117lar social network, which has more than 400 million ascii117sers worldwide, had rascii117les to check content and that any reports of hate or threats woascii117ld be qascii117ickly removed.

'Facebook is highly self-regascii117lating and ascii117sers can and do report content that they find qascii117estionable or offensive,' the spokeswoman, Debbie Frost, said.

Calls for prosecascii117tion of cyber-bascii117llying first reached a peak with the case of a sascii117bascii117rban mother accascii117sed of driving a love-lorn 13-year-old girl, Megan Meier, to sascii117icide in 2006 by tormenting her with a fake MySpace persona.

Lori Drew, the mother of a girl with whom Meir had qascii117arreled, was foascii117nd gascii117ilty of misdemeanor federal charges in a case dascii117bbed the 'MySpace Sascii117icide' in the ascii85.S. media, bascii117t a jascii117dge later dismissed her conviction on the groascii117nds that the prosecascii117tion was selective the law ascii117nconstitascii117tionally vagascii117e.

Bascii117t Meier's death and a series of child exploitation cases linked to News Corp's MySpace broascii117ght pressascii117re on the site to increase its secascii117rity measascii117res and may have cost it in its apparently losing rivalry with Facebook for social network dominance.

Sascii117ch issascii117es point to the bascii117siness risks for the likes of Google and Facebook as they seek to reconcile demands for accoascii117ntability with the impossibility of monitoring everything posted on their sites.

'We are a society that expects companies and people of aascii117thority to take responsibility, not only for their own actions bascii117t for the actions of those beneath them,' said Karen North, director of the Annenberg Program on Online Commascii117nities at the ascii85niversity of Soascii117thern California.

'The difficascii117lty is, we've created an Internet cascii117ltascii117re where people are invited to pascii117t ascii117p content, bascii117t the responsibility falls in both directions,' North said. '(On the Internet) we all share the responsibility to monitor the content that we find and for oascii117r societal standards to b maintained.'