Press. voanews.com
Germany has threatened to slap social media companies with huge fines if
they do not act quickly enough to remove “hate speech” from their websites. Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a measure that would fine
websites like Facebook and Twitter up to $55 million if they do not do enough
to censor comments that violate German speech law.
"Hate crimes that are not effectively combatted and prosecuted pose
a great danger to the peaceful cohesion of a free, open and democratic
society," said Merkel's government in a statement. Germany outright bans
any speech that overtly promotes racism or insults a certain segment of the
population. It also, due to its Nazi past, bans public Holocaust denial.
The draft legislation would require social media companies to remove any
illegal speech within 24 hours of it being flagged by users. Other offensive
content would need to be removed within seven days of being reported and
reviewed. The German Federation of Journalists blasted the move and said the
legislation would make it “difficult to reconcile freedom of the press and
opinion.”
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the companies are responsible
for policing and removing hateful content from their sites and that “there is
no room for criminal incitement on social media.” “The internet affects the
culture of debate and the atmosphere in our society. Verbal radicalization is
often a preliminary stage to physical violence,” he added.
The massive flow of refugees into Germany over the past two years has
fueled a rise in negative online comments, alarming German authorities. In
2015, the social media companies agreed to step up policing of online hate
speech, though Maas said they have not done enough.
Mass cited research that claims Twitter removes just one percent of the
illegal content flagged by users within 24 hours, while Facebook removes 39
percent. Facebook rejected Mass’s data, citing its own data that shows it
removes about 65 percent of illegal content within a day. German lawmaker
Renate Kuenast called the fines “an invitation to not just erase real insults,
but to wipe out almost everything for the sake of playing it safe.” The bill
still needs to be approved by parliament.