Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is recuperating from an attack after a person under psychiatric treatment threw a statuette at him that smacked him in the face– and the delighted response by some Facebook site members has caused Italy to seriously explore shutting some sites:
Italy’s government will discuss measures to block Web sites that incite violence, after more than 300 groups on Facebook praised the man who attacked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“We will discuss measures to shut down all Web pages that violate the law at the next Cabinet meeting Dec. 17,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said today in Milan at a press conference. Berlusconi was hospitalized late yesterday after suffering cuts to his face and a broken nose in an attack at a political rally in downtown Milan.
Police have detained Massimo Tartaglia, 42, in connection with the assault. He has been undergoing psychiatric treatment for 10 years.
A few hours after the attack some Facebook subscribers set up groups supporting Tartaglia and used slogans such as “Let’s Make Tartaglia a Saint Immediately.”
Massimo Tartaglia’s Facebook fan page was created and has so far attracted more than 62,000 members. Maroni, who asked Facebook to shut down the forums, said blogs that incite criminal behavior can influence people with “mental health problems.” A blog, or Web log, is an online personal diary.
The Bloomberg report further notes that Italy also asked Facebook to remove a “Let’s Kill Berlusconi” page in October that attracted some 17,000 members.
Here are videos that report and show the attack. CNN:
The AP report on You Tube, posted with embed codes so sites can use it:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.