Right To Be Forgotten? Web Privacy Debate in Italy After Women's Suicide (ndtv.com)

The suicide of a woman who battled for months to have a video of her having sex removed from the internet is fuelling debate in Italy on the "right to be forgotten" online. The 31-year-old, identified as Tiziana, was found hanged at her aunt's home in Mugnano, close to Naples in the country's south on Tuesday, reports Agence France-Presse. From the report: Her death came a year after she sent a video of herself having sex to some friends, including her ex-boyfriend, to make him jealous. The video and her name soon found their way to the web and went viral, fuelling mockery of the woman online. The footage has been viewed by almost a million internet users. In a bid to escape the humiliation, Tiziana quit her job, moved to Tuscany and tried to change her name, but her nightmare went on. The words "You're filming? Bravo," spoken by the woman to her lover in the video, have become a derisive joke online, and the phrase has been printed on T-shirts, smartphone cases and other items. After a long court battle, Tiziana recently won a "right to be forgotten" ruling ordering the video to be removed from various sites and search engines, including Facebook.

Comments

Bravo indeed

[qbast]

"after she sent a video of herself having sex to some friends, including her ex-boyfriend, to make him jealous."

Stupidity kills.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Tyler Durden]

Yeah - if an ex sends a video of her having sex to make you jealous, sharing it with the world at large is pretty much the ultimate F U response.

"So do you want to see just how not jealous I am?" *click*

Re:Bravo indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

So she fired off a video with the intent of harming someone else, and ended up harming herself.
Sorry, no sympathy. I know she's a woman and everything but that doesn't mean she gets a free pass.

Now, if she'd been hacked and the video was stolen then it'd be a different story entirely.

Re:Bravo indeed

[cecurry]

A "free pass"!? They started putting her words on t-shirts, dude. For one mistake. For all the people screaming about accountability in her actions, I'd like to see you have your biggest mistakes become an object of mockery for everyone in the world.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet you call the people mocking her "neck-beards" and "basement-dwellers". So why would anyone care what they think, as they are so diminished in your eyes?

I suspect the mockery wasn't just random internet trolls, who move on to new victims, but her friends, family, coworkers, etc who she had to deal with everyday, which sent her over the edge.

In that case, she shared the videos with the very people who later turned on her - which is rather ironic, and also deflates your argument.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, my mistakes are typically not as grave as sending a sex tape to someone who has a motive - nay, a justification - to want to get back at me.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

well if he filmed "his biggest mistake" and sent it to an ex-girlfriend (ex's are ex's for a reason) what would he expect to happen?

if it was that big of a mistake, why film it? why send it to an ex, who obviously is an ex for a reason? people don't film their biggest mistakes and send them to anyone!
NO SYMPATHY

Re:Bravo indeed

[PPH]

biggest mistakes become an object of mockery

Windows Mobile.

Re: Bravo indeed

[TWX]

Despite the apparent acquiescence of neck-beards on Slashdot, having the ability to share personal information without sharing it with the entire world is something greatly desired by actual human beings.

And this capability has never, ever existed. Even huge corporations have tried to make it happen through a collection of technologies and laws called Digital Rights Management and despite tens of millions of dollars and system after system, DRM falls or is circumvented through the final 'analog hole'.

It's possible to have sympathy while still acknowledging that the risks that led to this outcome were entirely hers to bear in her obviously ill-thought actions that started this. The extreme nature of her particular extreme cultural influence is certainly abnormal, but it does show how ridiculous it is to expect the right to be forgotten to actually do a damn thing.

Re:Bravo indeed

[mjr167]

I think this falls under... "If you don't want the whole world including your mom and your pastor to see it, don't take pics and put it on the internet".

Sometimes you really do need to think things through before you act cause sometimes "oops" just doesn't cut it.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

People who truly need "protection from shame" aren't the ones making sex videos to get revenge on someone, and then sending them out to multiple people.

Re:Bravo indeed

[cayenne8]

If she'd been smart she would have gotten a formal copy right on the video, AND...copyright/trademark on the phrase she used "You're Filming? Bravo".....and made a fortune off this attempt to get back at someone that backfired.

There's always a silver lining somewhere if you just will look for it, and not take yourself out of the gene pool prematurely.

Re:Bravo indeed

[ranton]

We're seeing a new phenomenon relative to the entirely of human existence -- it's not natural for people to adjust to.

What are you talking about? For how much of human history do you think it was easy for average people to leave their society and start a new life? For how much of human history do you think average people had a large enough community to enjoy actual anonymity at any point in their life?

For most of human history you had small villages with a few hundred people, so anything you did followed you for life. I'm probably even being generous with that "few hundred" figure. Even in large cities people were segregated into smaller communities. What do you think would have happened to a woman who had sex in public for their ex-boyfriend and a few other people to watch in 1200 AD? It probably wouldn't have a happy ending for the woman.

Our society (especially in the US) has enjoyed perhaps a couple hundred years providing an unusual level of anonymity and chance for a new start in life. The final result of the information age will almost certainly put that to an end. Our societies need to spend more time dealing with the consequences of a lack of privacy and the permanency of information instead of kicking that can down the road with stupid laws and an idealistic view of human history.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Dishevel]

She sent the video specifically to hurt someone.
She killed herself over it.
World works just like we want it to. Go home SJW.

Re:Bravo indeed

[pr0fessor]

People want to share personal information with other human beings without sharing it with the rest of the world.

Granted there are people who share share private information in confidence with their friends and family but this isn't what happened. She sent a spiteful and mean video to her friends and ex-boyfriend in order to publicly humiliate and hurt him. It became more public than she had intended but if it had humiliated only him I imagine she would be feeling awfully satisfied.

I wouldn't do that to an ex and if one did it to me I wouldn't be sharing it with the world... the entire situation is out of control.

Re:Bravo indeed

[networkBoy]

Look I feel bad for the gal, but:
she sent a video of herself having sex to some friends, including her ex-boyfriend, to make him jealous.
Has nothing to do with file encryption or security best practices... It is *common sense* not to do something such as this. Sending someone what is effectively self destructive in an attempt to anger them is literally begging for retaliation, while providing said ammo.

This woman was stupid on an epic scale.

Star wars kid, tron guy, etc. all silly and sure, embarrassing, but not actually damaging nearly at the level of a sex tape.

What. Was. She. Thinking?

Re: Bravo indeed

[ranton]

Because really, it's not her fault: it's a new situation created by technology that humans weren't equipped to deal with.

The new situation is people who think there are no consequences for their actions. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, and I'm guessing it wasn't a revelation even then that public knowledge of questionable sexual behavior could have severe consequences for the rest of your life (or even result in death quite quickly).

We need to realize as a society that privacy and anonymity were the aberrations in human history.

Re: Bravo indeed

[ShieldW0lf]

People have feelings. They make mistakes, then change in response to those mistakes. The horrible thing about this is, she was actively prevented from growth by people who wanted to freeze her identity at a moment in her development which caused her pain, and force her to writhe there, suffering, for the rest of her life.

You can make all the comments you want about openness and transparency and accountability, and they may have merit, but that doesn't change the fact that this woman genuinely grew past the point where these videos accurately reflected her as a human being, she tried to communicate that, no one would listen, so she killed herself. The people didn't have a greater understanding, they had a misunderstanding which could not be corrected, and we lost her and everything she had to offer as a consequence.

I can relate. I wish I'd hung myself instead of trying to overdose, I might be enjoying her peace.

Re:Bravo indeed

[Sique]

This is a common mistake you made here.

You messed up two things.

1. Doing something stupid.
2. Having a free pass to do something illegal, just because someone else was stupid.

Yes, it is stupid for instance not to lock your front door. But it is still illegal to burglar a house with an unlocked door. Everyone who forwarded the video was doing something illegal. And it is not the fault of the woman when someone else does something illegal. It's primarily the fault of the people doing something illegal. But she was still suffering the consequences of someone else acting against the law.

Whoever excuses criminal behavior with the stupidity of someone else has a deeply twisted mind.

Re:Bravo indeed

[MooseTick]

"Star wars kid, tron guy, etc. all silly and sure, embarrassing, but not actually damaging nearly at the level of a sex tape."

How is a sex tape damaging to most people? I think its a shame that basically everyone likes sex, nearly everyone enjoys sex, yet its somehow offensive and humiliating for people to know or see you having it.

Right to be Forgotten

[Archangel Michael]

You're asking for something that is impossible, to be a "Right"

The "online" part is irrelevant (and just as impossible). I can no more "forget" on demand short of you lobotomizing me, and you don't have that right.

So, lets stop tossing words like "rights" around, when they cannot apply.

BTW, she handled it very poorly. She could have milked it (trademarked the phrase) and become a famous porn star, with a catch phrase and all. Embrace that which makes you famous (like the Kardashians) and you'll be both Rich and Famous.

Are you for real?

[stkris]

The four comments on this story all blame the woman for her own stupidity?

Are you guys for real? Yes I assume you are guys.

Just because someone makes a stupid mistake we don't have the right to keep on blasting her for it! And she asked please would you stop and leave me alone. And the idiots still kept on pestering her. Making t-shirts? I cannot belive it! Sure - it's not illegal to do that but the people doing it place themselves square into the neanderthal part of the intelligence and compassion scales! I bet you guys know how to google - so don't just take my word for it - but an environment in which you are continously beeing harrassed can cause all kinds of damage in a persons soul. Some people in Italy and on the net really should think hard and long about their own behaviour! Are you all 13 years old? I don't think so!

And then to come here and you all continue the blame fest on her for beeing harassed and mobbed enough to take her own life? HELLO! She took her own life. That is no joke!

I had to thaw up my old account for this because I'm shocked and ashamed of what Slashdot has became.

Re:Are you for real?

[ranton]

Having sympathy for the woman and having outrage that these kind of stupid decisions end up creating even more stupid laws are not mutually exclusive. Having more outrage about laws that affect billions of people (even if only slightly) than sympathy for a single human life is also quite natural, consider 150,000 people die each day.

If there was no such thing as Right to be Forgotten laws, there would be nothing but sympathy for this woman. But considering the political climate it is reasonable most of us are upset at the people peeing in the pool everyone else has to swim in.

Re: Are you for real?

[BarbaraHudson]

Totally disagree. She made the video expressly to humiliate her ex-boyfriend. She distributed it to his family and friends. That's called revenge porn.

Nobody gets a free pass on this regardless of their sex. Anything else sends the message that women need to be protected from the consequences of their own decisions because they are women. Your comment is both sexist and misogynistic - if it was the ex making sex videos of himself and sending it to her family and friends in an attempt to humiliate her, and she spread it around, we'd be laughing at the dumbass and celebrating his Darwin award. Let's not have double standards based solely on sex - it's demeaning to women.

Re:Are you for real?

[NatasRevol]

You are completely and utterly wrong.

1. She engaged in consensual sex act.
2. She approved of it being filmed (Bravo!)
3. She sent it, unbidden, to former lover & friends.

Those were her choices. There was never ANY agreement that the video was private. And most assuredly, the recipients would not have agreed to it. She gave up her privacy when she CHOSE to send the video to others, without any agreement in place.

They had the freedom to do what they wanted with it. She tried to embarrass her ex-lover by sending it, so he turned around and embarrassed her by sharing it further.

The ONLY one at fault is her.

Re: Are you for real?

[BarbaraHudson]

I think YOU are mistaken. I never said that she made the videos with her ex - she made them with other men (including more than one at a time) after the split, with the express purpose of humiliating him in front of his friends and family to whom she distributed the videos.

When she distributed it to people who never even asked to see it, she lost all right to claim any sort of "privacy." There was no prior "understanding" between her and any of the recipients that "hey, this is private, just fyi, so keep it confidential." She was attempting emotional blackmail, and the motivation makes it revenge porn.

If someone tried to humiliate me, I'd make it very public (actually, already happened a few times) as a way of holding them accountable for their actions. They would have NO right of privacy in what they had said. Anything less gives power to the perp, and she was the perp in this case.

She was the one who tried to do the whole public shaming thing, but, like pissing in the wind, when the wind doesn't blow the right way, you're going to get splash-back.

Once you make something public, there's no take-back. That's the way the world works, and has worked long before the Internet. Gossip is part of human nature.

Re: Are you for real?

[BarbaraHudson]

She made multiple videos, each with her having sex with one or more men, in a misguided and ultimately fatal attempt to humiliate him. She sent those videos, unsolicited, to his friends and family. The intent makes it revenge porn. She was trying to send the message "see how many men want me", and instead sent the message "I'm a stupid slut." She was the one who lost all right to privacy when she willfully sent them unsolicited to his friends and family.

Anyone who doesn't live their whole life in the drama bubbles on Facebook or twitter could have told her the risks, but she probably wouldn't have listened anyway. The desire for revenge clouded her judgment.

That so many posters automatically assume that the guy was the perp shows just how much sexism is alive and well.

It would equally be revenge porn if, in an attempt to humiliate a neighbor, they had intentionally distributed porn featuring the neighbor's kids to all the members of the neighbor's church. "Look at how my neighbor raised their kids." The intended target doesn't have to be in the video. Humiliation by association. It's real.

Re:Blame Someone Else

[TheDarkener]

Blame Someone Else for your own stupidity.

Agreed.

She must be an American at heart.

There are stupid people all around the world, my friend. Pointing the finger at a country and calling its people stupid is like pointing at the Sun and calling it helium.

Re:Blame Someone Else

[micahraleigh]

America takes a lot of derision from other countries because we tend to focus on individual freedom/responsibility.

At least compared to other places.

The suicide part ... that was ultimately her decision alone. If someone "forces" you to commit suicide, it's not really a suicide.

Yes, I too wonder, where SJWs stand on this

[mi]

When Brendan Eich was "outed" as an opponent of "gay marriage", the online bullies forced his resignation from Mozilla's top job.

When blamed for the resulting degradation of Mozilla software's quality, the bullies insist, it was their First Amendment right to criticize and boycott Mr. Eich — and that he should have known, that "words have consequences" and censored himself.

Resigning is no different from suicide in this case — a person is driven to an unpleasant and unwanted action by the words of those, who hate/despise him...

A shame indeed

[fyngyrz]

Well, it's truly a shame that the world has become a place where you cannot escape your mistakes, large or small, if someone, anyone, is the least bit interested in seeing to it that you can't. No matter how hard you try, no matter how sincere you are, no matter what lengths you go to to adjust your behavior or act in ways to mitigate or reverse any damage you might have done, or have been perceived to have done.

It's part and parcel of the retribution over rehabilitation mindset, I think. Despicable, really.