• February 4, 2009

Criminal proceedings in Milan, Italy against four Google executives have been postponed until Feb. 18.

The executives, including Google's chief privacy officer Peter Fleischer, chief legal counsel David Drummond and former chief financial officer George Reyes are charged with criminal defamation and violating Italy's privacy law. The charges stem from a three-minute video in which four teens are shown bullying a 17-year-old with Down syndrome. The clip, uploaded by one of the teens in September, was removed Nov. 7, within 24 hours of Google receiving complaints about it.

None of the four executives appeared in court on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the city of Milan filed a civil lawsuit about the incident, according to The New York Times.--Wendy Davis