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Germany Plans To Fine Social Media Sites Over Hate Speech (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the zero-tolerance dept.

Germany plans a new law calling for social networks like Facebook to remove slanderous or threatening online postings quickly or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 mln). From a report: "This (draft law) sets out binding standards for the way operators of social networks deal with complaints and obliges them to delete criminal content," Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement announcing the planned legislation on Tuesday. Failure to comply could see a social media company fined up to 50 million euros, and the company's chief representative in Germany fined up to 5 million euros. Germany already has some of the world's toughest hate speech laws covering defamation, slander, public incitement to commit crimes and threats of violence, backed up by prison sentences for Holocaust denial or inciting hatred against minorities. It now aims to update these rules for the social media age.

6 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Double Edge by sciengin · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This will backfire so hard.

    I am familiar with the German media landscape and people have been complaining about the lying press for years now. Especially the state-funded news stations.
    Technically they do not have a lying press, but a press that very often omits and twists, but that is besides the question.

    What will happen is that people will report every news statement from those state funded medias on facebook.
    Facebook will then face the possibility of effectively removing everything from those medias, or pay a hefty fee.

    Once the politicians realize what will happening they will retract that law, after all it is frequently happening that they move into the board of those media agencies after their term is over, despite the supposed neutrality of the state funded press.

  2. Why so much hypocrisy from leftists? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why do we see so much hypocrisy from leftists?

    On one hand, they're always talking about how important "openness", "tolerance", "acceptance", and "transparency" are.

    Yet at the same time, leftists are at the forefront of putting extreme limits on what people can express, and extraordinarily harshly punishing anyone who dares to express an idea that these leftists dislike.

    Are leftist ideologies inherently contradictory, resulting in this sort of hypocrisy emerging naturally?

    Or is it some problem with the people themselves, such as a mental disorder of some sort, that draws them toward leftist ideologies in the first place, and renders them unable to see their own hypocrisy?

    Is there some other explanation?

    1. Re:Why so much hypocrisy from leftists? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Modern SJW liberalism is VERY different from classic liberalism. I myself am a classic liberal who left the Democrat Party over this. I can no longer support a party that has abandoned the principles of true equality and liberty for a very warped version of "equality" based on simply reversing who gets discriminated against. The liberal ideal I always stood for was that of an integrated society where all groups lived as equals, in union and harmony. The new SJW ideal is that of a re-segregated society where formerly oppressed classes rule and everyone else lives as second-class citizens. No thanks.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Why so much hypocrisy from leftists? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1, Interesting

      This is coming from the right in Germany. The right wants the laws they support on hate speech, particularly Nazism, applied online. They already made sure that Germany gets special versions of games and movies with the swastikas removed.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. Oh thats right by jediborg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is no free speech in Germany. You can't publish games about killing nazis (with the Nazi swastika logo) in Germany. I would know, having published video games in that region. You might also be surprised to know that the United States, Canada and Mexico are the ONLY regions in the world that consider video games 'expressions of free speech' and therefore beyond government censorship/regulation? In these regions the ESRB rates video games, like the MPAA (movie ratings) they are determined by a private entity funded by a coalition of video game publishers and developers. The system is far from perfect but it means all the censorship is coming from the industry itself, fueled by fears of consumer outrage should they release violence and boobies in a 'Rated E for everyone' video game. The governments of these regions cannot pass a law like the one in Germany, there is zero percent government censorship.

    In Japan, U.K., Germany, Italy, France and Spain (regions I have shipped games in) these games are 'rated' by an organization controlled by the government. They can be and often are subjected to the political forces of the week. What is and is not allowed is often arbitrary, obtuse, and games are regularly given harsher ratings for espousing political or social beliefs that the government of the year doesn't like. (Not to mention governments of the past, which may have encoded banned images/thoughts into law)

    When i first realized this information, it dawned on me how fragile freedom is. As westerners we tend to take it for granted and think that all the developed nations are abundant with freedom. When you look really closely though, freedom is a rather precious, fragile, and rare commodity in the world, deserving of our protection.

  4. Re:This is a wise move by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Agreed. 100%. "Hate Speech" is a cop-out for Censorship -- which is bullshit.

    I came across this fantastic commentary on a YT video:

    (British) Political Philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) made an argument for free speech including that of hate speech for a good reason too.

    He argued that if we censor hate speech our fundamental beliefs of what is right and wrong are not tested.

    If our beliefs are aren't argued against then we don't attempt to rationalize what we believe to be true.

    We don't think about why our beliefs are right.

    When we don't question our beliefs we don't think about them.

    And when we don't think about our beliefs we don't learn new things.

    We don't advance and improve our thoughts about what is right and wrong.

    He argued that even if someone's argument is wrong it still serves a purpose of making us rationalize and check our beliefs and even improve them.

    Being able to listen to an argument that is wrong lets us understand what makes an argument wrong and improve our own beliefs from learning from someone else's failure.