Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Germany Threatens To Fine Facebook Over Hate Speech (go.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the get-a-grip dept.

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.

15 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Germany has way more problems than Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All the influx of refugee's from Syria is causing a rebellion of the German people. Repressing it won't solve it.

    1. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by zuxun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Banning speech is never a good thing.

    2. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by aliquis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except the refugees ARE the problem.

      Here in Sweden we haven't got enough taxation to cover spending of the government or the municipalities right now and even then it's about 44% of GDP.
      An immigrant family with two children can receive $3000 / month AFTER TAXES with no work whatsoever.

      How many such families do you think it's ok to bring into Sweden?

      Germany grant more welfare than the US and Sweden grant more than Germany. That's why they come here. Too leech. Within the last day or two I heard about a teacher who had got his teeth punched out because the teacher was talking to a woman who was his wife. That's what you get with Muslims. Everyone else is no problem culturally but Muslims are and will be because their vile hate-ideology doesn't want them to adjust or accept our ways.

      Mexicans into the US would if not completely at-least to a higher degree be work immigration whereas our immigration are refugee/sponge immigration and Muslim colonization. The Mexicans unlikely will destroy the culture of the US I guess (vote democrats?), the Muslims will definitely destroy our culture.

      You can't compare the two.

      Also the number of refugees who came to Sweden was like 35 times as many / capita as to the US so yeah.. there's a volume difference. But the US system have a stronger freedom and democracy and robustness / conservatism in the system and have lower welfare and likely don't even open up for the trash we get here. Your system is better suited for it and you still don't bring in even close to as many.
      (Also US and allies like Saudi-Arabia and Turkey is what support the rebels and religious extremism in Syria and Iraq and it's the US who got rid of Gadaffi and Hussein and want to get rid of Assad too. You're part of the reason the genuine refugees even exist.)

    3. Re: Germany has way more problems than Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Smart people IGNORE the speech they do not like. Snowflakes try to force others into silence ----.

    4. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sweden should take ten times as may refugees as Saudi Arabia.

      Oh wait, it already did. When the first one landed.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by Dutchmaan · · Score: 3, Funny

      If only Germany had a strong nationalist leader to remedy the problem of foreigners infecting the pure German people! #MGGA!

      Wait a minute.. that seems weirdly familiar, but I don't remember why...

    6. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by DogDude · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To explain it to US readers, they're basically becoming Germany's Mexicans.

      The hard-working blue-collar engine of the economy? Good for y'all! Have they started opening up good Syrian restaurants, yet?

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    7. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and the attacks have all been by people born in or living in Germany for a very long time.

      You don't get problematic second-generation immigrants (admittedly somewhat of a misnomer, but that's how it's commonly called) without having unproblematic first generation immigrants first.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    8. Re:Germany has way more problems than Facebook by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Right. There are not any no-go areas in western Europe. It's all just hysterical bullshit from the alt-right.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Analogues by John+Allsup · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Analogues by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

  3. Merkel has good approval ratings by tempmpi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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
  4. /|\ DeVry MBA by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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."
  5. Yelling "Fire" IS LEGAL by mi · · Score: 3, Informative

    You are not allowed to yell "Fire" in a crowded theater.

    This oft-cited sentiment was first verbalized by a Supreme Court Justice in 1919. The case was not about any actual fire or theater, but about a man distributing leaflets and otherwise agitating against World War I draft. The protester was trying to defend his speech by the First Amendment and failed.

    As later anti-draft protests — and the legal reaction to them — made clear, such speech is now not only legal, but commendable.

    There is a distinct difference between free speech and publishing opinions and instigating hate and crimes.

    As the 1919 case I cited above makes regretfully if abundantly obvious, the difference is not at all "distinct", and the country's top legal minds can very well err on the side of oppression. That later-amended decision passed by SCOTUS unanimously...

    Even today, a sizable portion of Americans — plenty of lawyers among them — would consider Donald Trump's speech "hateful" and "inflammatory", making it most tempting for the party at the helm of the Executive branch to prosecute him, thus helping their own candidate win. Do you really want a country like that? Oh, wait.... You probably do...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  6. Re:LOL Germany by moronoxyd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.