London, March 16: The German justice ministry is planning to frame a new law that will force social networking sites to curb fake news and hate speech.
German justice minister Heiko Mass revealed details of a new law that will force social networking sites to publish a quarterly accountability report.
Under the new law, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks will be required to offer users “an easily recognisable, directly reachable, and constantly available” complaint process for “prosecutable content”.
"Violating these regulations could lead to a fine of up to $5.3 million for the individual employee responsible for the complaint procedure, and up to the same amount for the company itself."
During a test conducted in January-February this year, the Justice ministry found that that Facebook only deleted 39 per cent of offensive content reported by users, while Twitter fared even worse, with only 1 per cent of content reported by users deleted.
The test was conducted by the child protection organisation Jugendschutz.net.
“Hate and incitement endanger cohesion in our country and are poison for society. It’s unacceptable that companies make huge profits from social networks and at the same time slink away from their responsibility in fighting messages of hate.” Manuela Schwesig, Family Minister, was quoted as saying.