If I were facebook, I'd just pull out of Germany altogether. I have no problem with facebook moderating the content that is posted on their platform, but I have a big problem when they are forced to by government.

But this is what the left cherishes...the eradication of opposing free speech. FB will of course capitulate, along with twitter and the rest.

14 March 2017 - 14H00
Germany proposes heavy fines on Facebook for hate speech


© AFP/File | A surge of hate speech on Facebook and other social media in Germany has raised the political heat on the companies ahead of a general election in September

BERLIN (AFP) -
Germany's justice minister proposed a law Tuesday that could see social networks such as Facebook slapped with heavy fines if they fail to wipe illegal hate speech from their sites.

The minister, Heiko Maas, who has been highly critical of Facebook's efforts to clamp down on outlawed racist and xenophobic posts and comments, said the new measures could carry penalties against the offending company of up to 50 million euros ($53 million).

He noted the draft law, which would still require the approval of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet and then the parliament, followed several months in which companies had been allowed to take voluntary measures.

"These have proved insufficient, and they (the posts) are not being deleted quickly enough," Maas told reporters, citing data provided by internet watchdog jugendschutz.net.

A surge of hate speech on Facebook and other social media in Germany has raised the political heat on the companies ahead of a general election in September.

Facebook and other web giants pledged in 2015 to examine and remove within 24 hours any hateful comments spreading online, in particular over the mass influx of migrants and refugees.

However Maas said Tuesday that "networks aren't taking the complaints of their own users seriously enough".

He said that of the content reported by users deemed to run afoul of Germany's strict hate speech laws, Twitter only took down one percent and Facebook 39 percent.

Google's YouTube video sharing platform fared better, with a rate of 90 percent according to jugendschutz.net data cited by the minister.

Maas's draft law stipulates that social networks must offer users clear and easily accessible means to file complaints, review them quickly and delete blatantly illegal content within 24 hours.

At the latest, offensive posts would have to be taken down within one week after a complaint is submitted.

Companies would also be required to file quarterly reports on their efforts to crack down on hate speech.

Maas's hard line, among the toughest in the European Union, has its critics within the government.

This month Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries, like Maas a Social Democrat, warned against a sweeping law, saying responsibility for enforcing hate speech legislation should not be "privatised".

However the Central Council of Jews in Germany welcomed Maas's proposal, saying stronger measures against "incitement of racial hatred, glorification of National Socialism and Holocaust denial on social media" were "urgently required".

http://www.france24.com/en/201...facebook-hate-speech

He gets to decide what is "hate" speech?

Germany is gone, lost to the muslim minority that will come to rule it.

You can thank Angela Merkel when she comes to visit Friday.

Europe, soon to follow.

RMD

Germany is so afraid of being called Nazis again, that they're willing to act like Nazis to prevent it from happening.

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:
Germany is so afraid of being called Nazis again, that they're willing to act like Nazis to prevent it from happening.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Verbatim.

quote:

hateful comments spreading online, in particular over the mass influx of migrants and refugees.

Truth = hate speech...

quote:

the content reported by users deemed to run afoul of Germany's strict hate speech laws,

Yes... Germany will become majority Muslim by mid-century.
You won't get the same accommodation for Jews or Christians.

Anti-semitism has returned to Europe with a vengeance.

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Germany is gone, lost to the muslim minority that will come to rule it.

You can thank Angela Merkel when she comes to visit Friday.

Europe, soon to follow.

RMD

Germany has been banning "hate speech" and a lot of other speech since the war. It doesn't have all that much to do with Muslims. It has everything to do with guilt over WWII. They seem to think that not talking about Nazis will prevent Nazism in the future.

Airsoft Guy said it more colorfully.

But Muslims don't have much to do with it.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
He gets to decide what is "hate" speech?

That has always been defined as anything said that is not in agreement with the liberal 'cause' = hatespeech

Crusade anyone? We have been here before and it took 200+ years to rid Europe of Islam. Who has the cahones to start?

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:
Germany is so afraid of being called Nazis again, that they're willing to act like Nazis to prevent it from happening.

My German coworker has told me many, many stories affirming this.

These days though it seems in some of these far left countries just disagreeing with certain politically correct positions could be construed as hate speech. Man made global warming, "bathroom laws", and anything Pro Trump comes to mind as a possibilities.

quote:

Originally posted by Dead_Eye:

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:
Germany is so afraid of being called Nazis again, that they're willing to act like Nazis to prevent it from happening.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Verbatim.

Me too. This is all their own making, pretty soon most of Europe will be engaged in a war to remove the Muslims.

I am finally going to get a Farcebook page specifically to post how much I hate Heiko Maas and Angela Merkel for being communists.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
He gets to decide what is "hate" speech?

Seems like hate speech has become any comments/statements detailing attacks by muslim men on women. Gang rapes are not reported as such.

Women in Sweden were told not to wear enticing clothing out of respect to the muslim males.

Apparently, a fairly large number of sexual assaults on women are not reported by the media.

Or, how about the recent "exercise" in which several muslim men destroyed the building (in Germany) because they were unhappy with the quality of cell phone service in the shelter?

We have family and life long friends in Germany and they are beginning to get the message that their gubbermint is not acting in their best interest.

I don't know why anyone thinks there's anything universal about the rights Americans have granted themselves? Other countries run themselves in other ways. That's why there are different countries.

Given the consequences of what's they'd now consider "hate speech" that occurred in the 1930's in Germany, I can fully understand why they would not only not consider it protected, but attempt to ban it.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
I don't know why anyone thinks there's anything universal about the rights Americans have granted themselves? Other countries run themselves in other ways. That's why there are different countries.

One of the main reasons I posted this article was to highlight the differences in freedoms that we have in America (particularly free speech) compared to those in Europe. These ignorant progressives who today think Europe is so much more refined and enlightened than the US should try expressing themselves in certain ways in one of these countries.

Shamefully though it feels as if this type of censorship is (or maybe we can now say was?) creeping into the American psyche as well...and I don't like it.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:


One of the main reasons I posted this article was to highlight the differences in freedoms that we have in America (particularly free speech) compared to those in Europe. These ignorant progressives who today think Europe is so much more refined and enlightened than the US should try expressing themselves in certain ways in one of these countries.

Shamefully though it feels as if this type of censorship is (or maybe we can now say was?) creeping into the American psyche as well...and I don't like it.

It is an important point - others may not be as enlightened as some would imagine.

There are different ways to order societies. Some of them work - it would be hard to say that Germany and Britain haven't been successful up to now, even though many Americans would be uncomfortable with many aspects of their laws.

But we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking, "If we could only be like them."

I knew I'd seen a picture of someone who Maas reminded me of....



Maas is on the right.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
I don't know why anyone thinks there's anything universal about the rights Americans have granted themselves?

Because our founder's believed certain truths to be self evident.

quote:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

quote:

Given the consequences of what's they'd now consider "hate speech" that occurred in the 1930's in Germany, I can fully understand why they would not only not consider it protected, but attempt to ban it.

I'd be interested in the theory behind this statement. Are you saying it's logical to conclude that the rise of Nazism had to do with too much free speech?