Giovanni Pitruzzella

Giovanni Pitruzzella    (jurist, judge)
Born	15 July 1959 Palermo, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	University of Palermo
Member of	Aspen Institute Italia
Interests	• fake news • censorship
Italian judge with a passion for censorship. "It is not the job of a private entity to control information. This is historically the job of public powers."  Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy In office 14 November 2023 - Present

Giovanni Pitruzzella is an Italian jurist and academic who has been Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy since 14 November 2023. He concurrently is an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), a position he has held since October 2018.

He was Chairman of the Italian Competition Authority 2011-2018. As Italy's antitrust chief, he argued strongly for government regulation to outlaw "fake news". He has also written a book on the subject.

Censorship

Pitruzzella believes "it could be argued that fake news is not constitutionally covered by the European vision of free speech." In addition - a strange position for a jurist - he proposes that "tackling fake news" should be taken away from the judicial system, which is notoriously clunky, and given to "independent" regulatory bodies: "Speed is a critical element" Pitruzzella pointed out in an interview with Financial Times.

At the end of 2016, Pitruzzella, as Italy's antitrust chief, proposed that "EU countries should set up independent bodies — co-ordinated by Brussels and modelled on the system of antitrust agencies — which could quickly label fake news, remove it from circulation and impose fines if necessary. "Post-truth in politics is one of the drivers of populism and it is one of the threats to our democracies," Pitruzzella said. Pitruzzella said it would be inappropriate to leave this task to social media self-regulation. "Platforms like Facebook have created great benefits for people and customers: they are doing their part as an economic entity in adopting policies to modify their algorithms to reduce this phenomenon", he said. "But it is not the job of a private entity to control information. This is historically the job of public powers."

Career

Pitruzzella graduated in law from the University of Palermo in March 1982.

Between 1986 and 1994 he was a professor associate of public law institutions in the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Cagliari and from 1994 to 1997 full professor of constitutional law in the Faculty of Law of the same university. Since 1998, he has been a full professor of constitutional law at the University of Palermo as well as a professor in the School of Specialization in European law.

On 18 November 2011, he was president of the Italian Competition Authority to replace Antonio Catricalà, who resigned following his appointment as undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of the Monti government. Pitruzzella took office on 29 November 1011 and remained in office until 30 September 2018.

Pitruzzella was appointed as the Advocate General at the European Court of Justice on 8 October 2018 for a six-year term. He was reappointed for a second term in 2023 will end on 6 October 2030.

On 10 November 2023, President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella appointed him, together with Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi, as a Judge of the Constitutional Court. He was sworn in on 14 November 2023.

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