Germany Wants Facebook To Obey Its Rules About Holocaust Denial

Bruce66423 writes: In a classic example of the conflict of cultures bought about by the internet, Germany is trying to get Facebook to obey its rules about banning holocaust denial posts. From the linked Jerusalem Post article: [Justice Minister Heiko] Maas, who has accused Facebook of doing too little to thwart racist and hate posts on its social media platform, said that Germany has zero tolerance for such expression and expects the US-based company to be more vigilant. "One thing is clear: if Facebook wants to do business in Germany, then it must abide by German laws," Maas told Reuters. "It doesn't matter that we, because of historical reasons, have a stricter interpretation of freedom of speech than the United States does." "Holocaust denial and inciting racial hatred are crimes in Germany and it doesn't matter if they're posted on Facebook or uttered out in the public on the market square," he added. ... "There's no scope for misplaced tolerance towards internet users who spread racist propaganda. That's especially the case in light of our German history."

Comments

Should corporations be above national law?

[Goglu]

This is really the question that applies...

Should corporations (a.k.a "moral persons") have more rights than national citizens? Should they be allowed to ignore laws they don't like and replace them with "our corporate policies"? Or, should there be a new international framework to regulate internet communication, rather than trust self-regulation?

Managers of Facebook consider holocaust deniers to have higher morals than women breast-feeding. This is a typical example of what self-regulation will bring.

Facebook managers should face the same legal consequences than the publisher of a German newspaper publishing the same posts. Unless, of course, the answer to the initial question is Yes, in which case there is no reason to forbid sales of drugs through Internet...

Re: Christ on a popsicle stick, now what?

[guruevi]

Germany was great during Hitler if you were a standard, run of the mill German. If you were Jewish, gay, non-Christian, atheist, immigrant then you were in trouble, it started by losing your job, being relocated and eventually prison or concentration camps. The police grew extra powers such as warrantless spying on citizens, seizure of property and indefinite arrests. Churches, corporations and banks became invulnerable to prosecution and the state sponsored a great deal of them.

The same holds for the current U.S. as long as you exclude Jewish from the list. It will only take someone akin to Rick Perry or perhaps another Bush to take the U.S. over the edge.