The German Justice Minister Heiko Maas claims that social media sites don’t do enough to combat hate speech online and has threatened sites with further European Union (EU) regulation. In the latest attempt to crack down on what the German government defines as “hate speech” Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas has made it clear that he believes social media sites like Facebook are not doing enough to combat so-called “hate posts”. Mr. Maas has claimed that Facebook in particular is too slow at removing “offensive” posts by its users who criticise migrants or who make “racist” remarks. The Justice Minister has gone so far as to threaten Facebook and other social media platforms with further EU regulations if they do not take “stronger action” against “hate speech”, reports German paper Junge Freiheit. “There is still too little, too slow and too often the wrong thing is deleted,” Mr. Maas, a member of the Social Democrat party (SPD), told German press, and claimed that the “result of your [Facebook’s] efforts remains well short of what we agreed together in the task force.” The task force that the Justice Minister refers to was set up last year in order to combat “hate speech”, which can
German Justice Minister Wants Harsher Action Against Hate Speech Online
The German Justice Minister Heiko Maas claims that social media sites don’t do enough to combat hate speech online and has threatened sites with further European Union (EU) regulation. In the latest attempt to crack down on what the German government defines as “hate speech” Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas has made it clear that he believes social media sites like Facebook are not doing enough to combat so-called “hate posts”. Mr. Maas has claimed that Facebook in particular is too slow at removing “offensive” posts by its users who criticise migrants or who make “racist” remarks. The Justice Minister has gone so far as to threaten Facebook and other social media platforms with further EU regulations if they do not take “stronger action” against “hate speech”, reports German paper Junge Freiheit. “There is still too little, too slow and too often the wrong thing is deleted,” Mr. Maas, a member of the Social Democrat party (SPD), told German press, and claimed that the “result of your [Facebook’s] efforts remains well short of what we agreed together in the task force.” The task force that the Justice Minister refers to was set up last year in order to combat “hate speech”, which can