German cabinet agrees to crack down on fake news, hate speech
NAN-F-36
News
Berlin, April 5, 2017 (dpa/NAN) A proposed law to crack down on hate speech and fake news on the internet was agreed to by the German cabinet on Wednesday, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said.
He said online media and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter if found liable will be fined not less than 53 million dollars for failing to remove such contents.
The proposed rules give companies a strict 24-hour deadline to get rid of material from their platforms that is deemed slanderous and hateful.
“With our draft law, we are taking concrete steps to back up the existing obligations to eradicate hate speech and fake news that carry a criminal offence,” Maas said.
He said that social network providers have a responsibility to take action when their platforms are abused to spread hate speech and fake news that are contrary to Germany’s criminal code.
The move comes as Germany gears up for national elections later this year with Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying that it was likely to be one of Germany’s toughest campaigns since the Second World War.
Maas said that despite lengthy talks with online companies there had little sign of improvement in their efforts to remove criminal content from their platforms.
“Our problem is that not too much, but too little criminal content is being erased from the social networks,” Maas said.
The internet protection group jugendschutz.net said in a study that while YouTube had the best record in removing criminal content from its platform, Twitter had the lowest, removing just 1 per cent.
It said that Facebook’s record stood at 39 per cent. (dpa/NAN)
OYE/AFA
Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Felix Ajide