Germany asks Facebook to do more to fight hate speech, Facebook kind of agrees

[dkpope]

On Monday, Germany’s justice minister announced a partnership with Facebook to get a handle on racist and hateful posts, Reuters reports. This comes to attention because refugees are flooding into Germany in record-breaking numbers, and people have taken to Facebook and other social media platforms to express anti-foreigner sentiment.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Facebook to do more, and the company then met with Justice Minister Heiko Maas to discuss details.

After the meeting, Maas said that his colleagues would implement a task force with Facebook, and other social networks and ISPs, to find and remove criminal posts.

Facebook had also previously announced a partnership with German group FSM, which monitors multimedia service providers, and is urging its users to discourage racist posts.

The partnership with FSM and task force with Maas are just the first two parts of a three-part plan, ZD Net reports. The third part is to promote ‘counter speech’ on Facebook in Germany, as a way to battle racism and xenophobia through social media interactions.

It will be interesting to see what happens because Facebook has not explicitly agreed to do what German officials want: immediately delete racist posts. In Germany, free speech doesn’t exist as we know it in the U.S. Instead it is illegal to say things that provoke hatred against segments of the population.

Another reason Facebook may want to take a more lenient approach that uses ‘counter-speak’ is that it will create more interactions and posts on their social media platform. And we all know at the end of the day, Facebook is firstly concerned with Facebook.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

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https://www.techspot.com/news/62113-germany-asks-facebook-do-more-fight-hate-speech.html

 

[psycros]

This is why I laugh in the face of people who try to perpetuate the myth off European superiority. Censorship is rampant, taxes are insane and kids are brainwashed into committing cultural suicide. The only countries that EU citizens are allowed to freely hate are the US and Israel.

 

[risc32]

Ah Germany. Importing it's own demise.

 

[davislane1]

"You will not make negative comments about ze immigrants on ze social media. If you do, ve vill be very angry, yeah?"

Ladies and gentlemen, the end of Facebook.

 

[infiltrator]

I hardly use my Facebook account nowadays. There's just too much crap that people post and most comments are unintelligent.

 

[psycros]

Ah Germany. Importing it's own demise.

"Importing" is right. Never forget that Merkel INVITED these people back in spring of this year. It was all planned, exactly the way Obama planned the invasion from Central America. Then it got a little out of hand in the way that liberal stupidity always does. You can never have enough welfare votes to stuff the ballot box or enough censorship to cover it up. Merkel and her cohorts will be remembered for creating a second ultra-nationalist movement..only this time it really WILL be needed for the country to survive. In the space of a few months Germany has in all likelihood exceeded the US in at least one respect: having a bigger percentage of foreign squatters who will never assimilate and who will contribute little to their host nation except hate, intolerance and crime.

 

[rdesm]

This is why I laugh in the face of people who try to perpetuate the myth off European superiority. Censorship is rampant, taxes are insane and kids are brainwashed into committing cultural suicide. The only countries that EU citizens are allowed to freely hate are the US and Israel.

It seems to me that you oversimplify social things. Please, learn more before saying things that you don't really now. I do not agree with censorship because it limits free speech but what can we do if people post things that are not thoughtfull.

 

[cliffordcooley]

but what can we do if people post things that are not thoughtfull.

Require them not to post anonymously as cowards. Anyone posting crap about someone else and not willing to stand behind their words, deserve to be moderated out of existence. Free speech is one thing, but anonymous free speech is a whole new topic.

 

[Hexic]

I'd rather have free speech, and ignore those who I know don't posses an IQ higher than their teeth count - than give up my free speech to the CareBear Police because somebody got their poor little feelings hurt.

Midol is quite cheap nowadays, some clearly need to stock up.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

In 1933 people were leaving Germany in their droves. 82 years later they're streaming back in... The more things change the more they stay the same.

 

[Mister_K]

The only countries that EU citizens are allowed to freely hate are the US and Israel.

wot r yer talkin' bout'?

 

[davislane1]

This is why I laugh in the face of people who try to perpetuate the myth off European superiority. Censorship is rampant, taxes are insane and kids are brainwashed into committing cultural suicide. The only countries that EU citizens are allowed to freely hate are the US and Israel.

It seems to me that you oversimplify social things. Please, learn more before saying things that you don't really now. I do not agree with censorship because it limits free speech but what can we do if people post things that are not thoughtfull.

Answer: grow a pair.

The principle of free speech has nothing to do with being thoughtful. It has to do with being able to speak your mind without a government official shutting you up or punishing you for saying something deemed by an authority to be "unthoughtful." You don't disagree with censorship at all.

but what can we do if people post things that are not thoughtfull.

Require them not to post anonymously as cowards. Anyone posting crap about someone else and not willing to stand behind their words, deserve to be moderated out of existence. Free speech is one thing, but anonymous free speech is a whole new topic.

Anonymous free speech isn't new and exists for the same reason as its offline counterpart. Forcing people to dox themselves for saying objectionable things is no different from censoring them. It shuts them up by threatening them with harm.

 

[risc32]

In 1933 people were leaving Germany in their droves. 82 years later they're streaming back in... The more things change the more they stay the same.

82 yrs ago Germany was a country about to go to war, again. Today it's a county opening inviting it's own overthrow and these days that's not understood. You don't even need to have a war tto tale over a nation, just walk on in. Boom.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

82 yrs ago Germany was a country about to go to war, again. Today it's a county opening inviting it's own overthrow and these days that's not understood. You don't even need to have a war tto tale over a nation, just walk on in. Boom.

Yup. Sometimes we're just too democratic.