ROME, ITALY: The Italian trial of four Google executives accused of defamation and violating privacy will begin on Tuesday. The charge pertains to a video clipping posted online showing an autistic youth being bullied by his fellow students.

Google said the case violates EU rules by trying to place responsibility on providers for content uploaded by users. According to European Union legislation, Internet service providers (ISPs) are not responsible for monitoring third-party content on their sites, but must remove such content if they receive complaints.

Though Google removed the video within 24 hours of receiving two complaints, Italian prosecutors have argued that the search company is an Internet content provider, rather than an ISP, and is therefore in breach of the same Italian law that regulates newspaper and television publishers, said a media report.

The events shortly preceded Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube. The probe was sought by Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome.

The trial at the Criminal Court of Milan has been postponed several times since February in order for the judge to consider procedural issues, said reports.

The Google executives facing charges are global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, chief legal officer David Drummond, former chief financial officer George Reyes and former Google Video European director Arvind Desikan.

Legal experts are of the opinion that it is the first case of this kind in Italy and Europe and entangling in such legal issues “will force providers to preventively control the content, something that goes against the very nature of the Internet”.

The search giant feels that the trial is a threat to freedom on the Internet because it could force providers into an impossible task of pre-screening the thousands of hours of footage uploaded everyday on to Web sites like YouTube.

"We feel that bringing this case to court is totally wrong," Google said in a statement. "It's akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post."

In a similar case, Google India, the Indian subsidiary of US-based software giant, had said on Monday that it will not be able to control the publication of content on its blogging website.