German minister wants to oblige internet companies to remove hate messages

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas has presented a bill to force internet companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to take stronger action against messages that incite hatred. On pain of a fine, these messages should be removed.

The bill prescribes binding standards on how the platforms should deal with complaints and creates conditions for the removal of hate messages. User complaints about hate messages must be dealt with without delay. Evidently criminal hate messages must be removed within 24 hours; other hate messages of which it is not clear at first sight whether they are actually punishable must, subject to an assessment, be removed within one week of receipt of the complaint. If these rules are violated, an administrative fine of up to 5 million euros can follow. In the worst case, a fine of up to 50 million euros can follow. It is unclear whether there is enough support for the law and when it will be introduced.

According to Maas, too few messages with criminal content are removed and the removal is not fast enough. He believes that Facebook and Twitter do not take user complaints seriously enough and therefore legal measures are needed. He points to the latest figures showing that Facebook has blocked or removed 39 percent of reported hate messages; during an earlier moment in the summer of 2016 this was still at 46 percent. Twitter is doing a lot worse, deleting only one percent of reported hate posts. In no case were the messages deleted within 24 hours.

Last year, the minister already announced that he was dissatisfied with the diligence of Twitter and Facebook in combating hate on the internet. He already announced at the time that he would force these companies by law to act more effectively in removing hate messages. Maas also said at the time that he was also considering holding the companies liable through the law in the event of negligence. He is also considering introducing an obligation to have internet companies prepare annual transparency reports, in which they must indicate how many reports of hate messages have been made and how the companies have dealt with them.

In Germany, plans have already been introduced several times to tackle undesirable matters on internet platforms through the law. For example, two German political parties announced at the end of last year that they want to combat the spread of fake news with a new law. According to this law, platforms such as Facebook must remove fake news within 24 hours, on pain of a fine of up to 500,000 euros.