Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on July 2, 2017

BERLIN (JTA) Germanys top Jewish leader praised a new lawdesigned to curb Holocaust denial on social networks.

The German Parliament passed the lawFriday in its lastmeeting before summer break. It requires social media platforms likeFacebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove material with obviouslyillegal content and fake defamatory newswithin 24 hoursof itshaving been reported. Previously, illegal material did not have to be removed after being reported.

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.

Heiko Maas, Germanys federal minister of justice, who submittedthe proposed law for consideration in March, said internet wouldnow be held to the same legal standards as other printed material. A study showed that major social mediaplatforms were slow to react to reported illegal content includingslander, incitement to hate, Holocaust denial andglorification of national socialism, all of which are illegal inGermany.

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, praised the new law as a strong instrument against online hatespeech and said 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, he said.

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.

But Schuster said in his statement that curbing hate speech againstminorities or religious groups has nothing to do with freedom ofexpression. The Internet must not become a free space.

World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer had supported Maas proposed law.

The Bundestag also passed a law that holds customers and notproviders responsible for downloading illegal music that comesthrough their servers.

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New German law curbs hate speech, including Holocaust denial, on social networks - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Category: Holocaust Denial
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