As a European I love to write smug rants on the internet about how our governments and our political culture are better than those of the US. However, stuff like this worries me.<p>We need more freedom of speech, not less. The US is miles ahead of us in this respect. Here in Europe, we're missing that fundamental value of "I disagree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it". Instead, it's more like "I disagree with what you say so I'm going to try to get you arrested for it". Eg Dutch xenophobe politician Geert Wilders got dragged into court <i>twice</i>! (ridiculous, and also countereffective because guess what it did for his ratings)<p>This sort of stuff is much worse, however. Given the 24 hour deadline, the only way Facebook reasonably can implement this is automation. A computer program determining whether my post is hate speech or satire? Seriously? Computers can't even tell the difference between a puppy and a cupcake. Why does anyone think this is a good idea?<p>A long time ago I used to hang out on an IRC channel that banned "bad words". The bot was very enthusiastically tuned with conservative American values. There was a user called "War^" but "war" was a forbidden word. Talking to him got you kicked out, mentioning him thrice got you banned.<p>Obviously, the solution there was simple: leave the IRC channel and never come back. But I'm not sure people will feel they have the same option for their favorite social media.
As much as I hate Facebook and I think it's one of the main vectors of all the social unrest cancer we see metastasizing everywhere in western society nowadays, this decision is stupid and does only yet more harm to free speech than actually address any real problem, but serves only to sweep it under the rug until it explodes in our face.<p>Of course, most politicians involved in making this happen won't ever have to deal with one iota of the inconvenience they bestow over their general population.
It wasn't that long ago when they were burning books that didn't conform to the social norms of the establishment. You'd think Germans would be smarter than to make the same mistake twice. The social media companies must fight this law. What if, say, Russian government demands removing any content promoting homosexuality (as it is currently against Russian law)? This type of shit will destroy Internet as we know it.
I really don't think that it should be a social media company's responsibility to police the internet. If a person posts something illegal, I think it should be that person that should be punished and it should be the job of the government/police/courts to do so. The social media company could then remove the content after that.
>must take down posts containing hate speech or other criminal material within 24 hours<p>Maybe this will convince facebook to remove decapitation videos.
Aside from the censorship debate, I still wonder what measures the German government has to enforce these fines. None of the discussed big companies are settled in Germany, but are regulated under European law. Where is the connection? Does a EU member have the capability to use EU regulators to enforce fines based on state law?
> sites with more that two million users in Germany must take down posts containing hate speech or other criminal material within 24 hours.<p>Censorship and fines galore. Just this week: a €2.4B fine from the EU for Google's integrated shopping view. A Canadian ruling stating that Google had to enforce Canadian censorship worldwide. And now, huge fines for content that the German government finds objectionable.<p>How long before google, Facebook, etc. retreat to the US entirely (or even to some liberal island nation)? Sooner or later, the economic benefit of a data company having a physical presence somewhere is outweighed by the cost of overbearing censorship laws. Maybe it's time for the Sultanate of Kinakuta to become a reality.<p>Google and Facebook should start investing heavily in anti-censorship technology a la Tor and I2P. Sadly, I fear that this may soon become necessary in "liberal" nations like Germany. It's already necessary in the U.K., with draconian anti-pornography and anti-cryptography laws.
Hypothetically speaking, if Facebook didn't want to comply, and they shutdown any German entities that could be exposed to fines, what would Germany's next move be? To block Facebook completely from the country?
Social media sites != open internet.<p>Before you make any statements about his this could potentially suppress voices and opinions, you can always make your own site. Even if the government did not interfere with these sites, the sites themselves totally have the right to regulate everything that's being posted. This is only to encourage this because companies like facebook didn't seem to give much of a damn about regulation.