Site advocated using kids with Down syndrome for target practice

From Reuters, New York Time,  Agence France Press:

Italy’s equality minister threatened legal action against the “thousands of idiots” involved in an Italian Facebook group that called for children with Down syndrome to be used for target practice.

The page, which has been shut down in the wake of public outrage, proposed the activity as an “easy and amusing” solution to rid the world of “these foul creatures.” It carried a photo of a baby with Down syndrome, with the word “imbecile” written on its forehead. As of late Sunday, the page had attracted 1,700 members.

“Italy will not tolerate incidents of discrimination of any sort, let alone against the disabled,” Equality Minister Mara Carfagna told Italian television Tuesday. “Those responsible for creating this madness will be prosecuted by the law.”

The outrage over the Facebook site comes as four Google executives are on trial in Milan facing criminal charges of defamation and privacy violations in a case involving videos posted on a Google website. The videos show a boy with autism being bullied by peers. Prosecutors allege that the company should have removed the videos after it was made aware of their content.

Google representatives say a guilty verdict might require the company to review content before allowing it to be posted on YouTube.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, language, public attitudes, stigma, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.