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Germany Threatens To Fine Facebook Over Hate Speech (go.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: German officials are stepping up their criticism of Facebook, saying the social network is doing too little to stop hate speech and could face stiff fines unless it deletes illegal content faster. In an interview published Friday, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said his ministry was checking whether it would be possible to make social networking sites legally liable for illegal posts. Germany has seen a sharp increase in vitriolic posts on social media in recent years amid a heated public debate over the influx of more than a million migrants since the start of 2015. The country has laws against speech deemed to be racist, defamatory or inciting violence -- a response to Germany's Nazi legacy. But authorities have struggled with the deluge of often anonymous postings on foreign-owned websites. Thomas Oppermann, a senior lawmaker in Maas' Social Democratic Party, told German weekly Der Spiegel that dominant social media sites like Facebook could be required to delete illegal posts within 24 hours or face fines up to 500,000 euros ($522,000). Facebook also could be compelled to distribute corrections that reach the same number of people as the original post, Oppermann suggested, something traditional media companies in Germany are already required to do.
All the influx of refugee's from Syria is causing a rebellion of the German people. Repressing it won't solve it.
What if we made homeowners responsible for hateful graffiti scrawled on their house? Or pubs and cafes liable for what is discussed there?
John_Chalisque
Because Americans already dug their own hole by willingly submitting to the "free speech at any price" philosophy, whereas most other Western nations take a more pragmatic approach of limiting people's speech when it impinges on other's right to exist.
.. in the first place?
It's an American country.
What happen if Facebook simply says "fuck off"?
Now the EU are banning (?) negative speak about refugees from the parties.
But how is that even the problem? The problem is that our traitor government let these people in in the first place. We don't want them here. That's the scenario. Why are they brought in? EU, Germany and Sweden are the enemies of the European peoples and democracy.
In Germany it is illegal to "criticize" "immigrants". Put-in-jail illegal.
Quotes intentional.
Yes I'm posting anonymously.
Having failed to force the sun to shine at night and the wind to blow constantly all the time, the German legal system is trying to force people to like a vast swarm of insurgents who arrived without visas and who are getting away with Allah knows what.
Why does any multinational do it? Because they have to have a registered presence in a country to do business there.
This wouldn't apply if you're selling knitted toilet roll covers via spamazon and turning over 50 bucks a year in Portugal.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Protip, German cluetards: Quite aside from the personal liberty issue you're blowing so badly here, it's always better to let the crazies sing, dance, speechify, and wear silly outfits. This way everyone knows who they are and you don't end up getting blindsided by some bastard(s) percolating in their own repressed hate for just a little too long.
Yeah, right. Except, that's what we did in the 1920s: Lete everybody say everything they want. And that allowed extremists like Hitler to amass a strong following and take over the government and transform the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich.
You know, there's a reason we changed our laws after WWI and then again after WWII: We learnt from our mistakes and are trying to not repeat them. Letting hate speech go unchecked is NOT the way to a less extrem society.