The Death of Free Speech
Think only government approved thoughts
(UPI) -- Legislation introduced in Germany would fine social media companies like Facebook and Twitter if they delay the removal of illegal content, including fake news, from their websites.
Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas has drafted a bill to impose fines of up to $53 million in a dramatic crackdown on content.
In December, Maas announced legislation to impose fines of up to $530,000 for any item of fake news and hate speech, including racism or comments that incite violence, if they aren't removed within 24 hours of being flagged.
Maas said he increased the amount because social media platforms still weren't complying with most user requests to remove illegal content.
"Too little criminal content is being deleted, and it's not being deleted sufficiently quickly," he told journalists Tuesday. "The biggest problem is and remains that the networks don't take the complaints of their own users seriously enough."
Maas said, according to a recent survey Jugendschutz, that Twitter deletes only 1 percent of the hate speech it is told about by users and Facebook removes 39 percent. On YouTube, it was 90 percent.
Facebook, which did not comment directly on the proposal, has said its tests showed it removed a higher percentage of illegal content. Facebook plans to have 700 people working in Berlin by the end of 2017 to review flagged content.
The legislation also requires the sites to run 24-hour hotlines and to remove flagged content within seven days.
The bill specifies that content that is "clearly criminal" must be removed within 24 hours. Also, if content is found to be criminal after an investigation, it must be removed in seven days.
Maas said fake news articles proven to be slanderous, defamatory or libelous must be removed.
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1984 is Here
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"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."
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"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."
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| "Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it... All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children." - George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 2 |
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