Yahoo – AFP,
Hui Min NEO, April 5, 2017
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| The German government has approved fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 million) against online giants that fail to remove hate speech and fake news reported by users within a week (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB) |
Berlin
(AFP) - Germany on Wednesday took the European lead in cracking down against
hate speech and fake news, threatening social media giants with fines of up to
50 million euros if they fail to remove offensive posts promptly.
Chancellor
Angela Merkel's cabinet approved the tough measure after assessing that
companies like Twitter and Facebook were not doing enough to erase content that
falls foul of German 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.
Since the
arrival of around one million asylum-seekers in Germany since 2015, the volume
of xenophobic hate speech has exploded online.
Alarmed by
the incendiary nature of the posts, the government has repeatedly warned the
online behemoths to better police the content on their network.
The web
companies had pledged in 2015 to examine and remove within 24 hours any hateful
comments, but Justice Minister Heiko Maas said not enough was done.
Citing a
government study, Maas said Twitter only took down one percent and Facebook 39
percent of the content reported by users.
Google's
YouTube video sharing platform fared far better, with a rate of 90 percent.
Beyond hate
speech and fake news, the draft legislation also covers other illegal content,
including child pornography and terror-related activity.
The
companies would have 24 hours to remove any posts that openly violate German
law after they are flagged by users.
Other
offensive content would have to be deleted within seven days after it is
reported and reviewed.
Executives
of the social media groups also risk individual fines up to five million euros
($5.3 million) in case of non-compliance.
Under
German law, Holocaust denial, incitement of hatred and racist speech are
illegal.
 |
The volume
of xenophobic hate speech has exploded online
in Germany (AFP Photo/STF)
|
'Policing
opinion?'
But critics
warned that the proposed law could stifle freedom of expression.
Renate
Kuenast, an MP with the opposition Greens, said the fines were "almost an
invitation to not just erase real insults, but to wipe out almost everything
for the sake of playing it safe".
Likewise,
the German Federation of Journalists said it would be "difficult to
reconcile freedom of the press and opinion" with the proposed legislation.
Facebook
warned that "this legislation would force private companies rather than
the courts to become the judges of what is illegal in Germany".
More than
700 people will be working on the content review task force for the company in
Berlin by year's end, said the group, which made profits of $3.7 billion (3.5
billion euros) in the last three months of 2016.
It also
rejected the data cited by Maas, saying that a test carried out by FSM -- a
self-regulation lobby group backed by online media -- found that Facebook
deleted more than 65 percent of illegal content within a day.
Maas
acknowledged that freedom of expression "has huge significance in our
democracy".
But he
added: "Freedom of expression ends where criminal law begins,"
predicting that Germany's measure would only be a start.
"In
the end, we need European solutions for companies that operate across Europe,"
Maas told reporters.
'Talking
to a wall'
Underlining
the frustration with the slow-moving fight against such online hate, one social
network user, Steffi Brachtel, told AFP she had filed countless complaints to
Facebook over offensive posts.
But only
once did it agree to remove a post -- a Hitler-related one, she said.
The
waitress had begun her one-woman campaign against online hate speech after a
friend shared an objectionable cartoon on Facebook.
"I
spent several hours every day on Facebook, trying to tell people to watch what
they are saying... but got the feeling that I was talking to a wall," she
said.
Brachtel
said she also faced physical threats. Neo-Nazis followed her on her way home
and her letterbox was bombed.
But she
warned that if action is not taken against far-right material, "then it
just gets passed on and on, and that's how the hate gets bigger in people, and
that's a major problem".
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