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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.
Actually the government is quite popular and Merkel is going for a 4th term. It's because they managed the refugees. Mandatory German lessons, set then up with some prospects, made sure they were distributed reasonably.
People are happy that Germany did it's bit too help when others, including the counties directly responsible for the crisis, did almost nothing.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
What if we made homeowners responsible for hateful graffiti scrawled on their house?
Actually we do that already. Go outside and paint "Fuck you" on the side of your house and see how far you get. You'll probably end up fighting a court case based on some local council ordinance vs a constitutional amendment.
She's number 4 on the list of most popular politicians in Germany. Her party is still 14 percentage points in front of every other party. 50% think she is doing a good job.(Source) Yes, there is a vocal minority that hates her and calls the media "Lügenpresse" or lying press and vote for the new right-wight populist party "AfD"(12%) but far more people either support Merkel's party (36%) or center to left-wing parties (22%+10%+10%). And this isn't just MSM, many of the federal states of Germany had elections this year and while AfD had impressive gains, it is nowhere near a majority anywhere.
Jan