Germany Considers Fining Social Media Platform’s Failure to Remove Illegal Content

In the wake of recent public dialogue about whether or not social media plays a role in the outcome of public events, this week, German Justice Minister, Heiko Maas, has proposed a law that would see social media sites face fines of up to 50 million euros if they fail to remove illegal content from their platforms. This comes on the heels of analogous discussions in the U.S. about social media platforms' role in disseminating, and obligations to review and remove, now-coined “fake news” content. Most recently, on March 13^th, 2017, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, again defended his company against assertions that by failing to remove false content from the platform, Facebook plays a role in promulgating “fake news.” Following a November 2016 Facebook post in which Zuckerberg addressed the need to weigh the removal of “fake” or illegal content from the platform against the preservation of freedom of expression, Zuckerberg touted accusations that Facebook wants “fake news” as “crap.” Commenting at a recent talk at North Carolina A&T State University, Zuckerberg rejected the notion that Facebook views “fake news” articles as a means of inducing more “clicks.” Read More ›