Cassation: Insulting is not a crime

Cassation: Insulting is not a crime

A Supreme Court ruling from early April 2020 established that insults on video chat platforms such as Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Gotomeeting cannot be considered a cybercrime, even when the insult occurs in the presence of multiple people.

The topic of remote communication is suddenly gaining notoriety due to the widespread use of chat rooms, both as an information tool and as an alternative form of communication to physical presence.

According to the judges of Piazza Cavour, the insults in video chat, which in this case occurred through the Google Hangouts platform, must in fact be classified as an insult aggravated by the presence of more than one person, a decriminalized offence, and not as aggravated defamation. referred to in art. 595, paragraph 3, of the Criminal Code. (offense caused by any other means of advertising), due to the particular diffusion of the medium used to propagate the message.

In other words, the use of a computer or telematic tool makes the offense more serious, but not when this occurs in a video chat with the offended party, even if other people are present.

The Supreme Court reiterated in this regard that "It has, in fact, been ascertained that the offensive expressions were uttered by the defendant via electronic communication directed to the offended party, and also in the presence of other people 'invited' into the voice chat.

That said, it should be remembered that the distinguishing element between insult and defamation is constituted by the fact that in insult the communication, by whatever means it is carried out, is directed at the offended party, while in defamation the offended party remains extraneous to the offensive communication exchanged with several people and is not put in a position to interact with the offender.

Cassation: Insulting is not a crime.

It follows that the act, as established by the contested ruling, must be classified as an aggravated assault by the presence of multiple persons, pursuant to Article 594, subsection (1), of the Criminal Code, which, pursuant to Article 1, paragraph 1, letter C), of Legislative Decree No. 7 of January 15, 2016, has been decriminalized; the contested ruling must therefore be annulled without referral, because the act, thus reclassified, is no longer considered a crime by law.“