The writing has been on the wall for months, but German lawmakers have now passed a controversial law under which Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies could face fines of up to ?50 million ($57 million) for failing to remove hate speech.
As AP reports, the measure approved is designed to enforce the country?s existing limits on speech, including the long-standing ban on Holocaust denial. Among other things, it would fine social networking sites if they persistently fail to remove illegal content within a week, including defamatory ?fake news.?
?Freedom of speech ends where the criminal law begins,? said Justice Minister Heiko Maas, who was the driving force behind the bill.
Under the law, social media companies would face steep fines for failing to remove ?obviously illegal? content ? including hate speech, defamation, and incitements to violence ? within 24 hours. They would face an initial fine of ?5 million, which could rise to ?50 million. Web companies would have up to one week to decide on cases that are less clear cut.
Aside from the hefty fine for companies, the law also provides for fines of up to 5 million euros for the person each company designates to deal with the complaints procedure if it doesn?t meet requirements.
Social networks also have to publish a report every six months detailing how many complaints they received and how they dealt with them.
Maas said official figures showed the number of hate crimes in Germany increased by over 300 percent in the last two years.
But human rights experts and the companies affected warn that the law risks privatising the process of censorship and could have a chilling effect on free speech.
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Germany Passes "Orwellian" Anti-Free-Speech "Facebook Law" | Zero Hedge