Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 4, 2017

BERLIN (JTA) The German parliament passed a new law Friday designed to curb hate speech and libel on social networks.

The law requires Internet platforms likeFacebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove material with obviouslyillegal content and fake defamatory newswithin 24 hoursof itshaving been reported. Previously, illegal material was reported butdid not have to be removed.

The new law places the onus on the social media platforms to removethe material or be subjected to heavy fines, reportedly of up to about $56million.

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, praised the new network law as a strong instrument against online hatespeech, and added that an evaluation period would help determine its efficacy.

In an official statement, he noted that social media has become ahotbed of anti-Semitic incitement, which is easily spread worldwide.Since platform operators generally failed to stick to agreements of a voluntary nature, this law is the logical consequence.

Criticism of the law came from legislators from the Left Party and theGreens, who said they worried about granting Internet companies thepower to set the boundaries for free speech online.

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German Law Curbs Holocaust Denial On Facebook, Twitter The ... - Forward

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