Germany wants more regulations for Facebook, says 'self-responsibility not enough'

Germany said it wants to expand its attempts to regulate content on Facebook saying that internal regulation by the social media giant is not enough. German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht reportedly said that public debate on social media platforms is being "distorted and poisoned", which is not acceptable adding that self-responsibility and internal regulation are just not enough. Germany already has a law that required social media platforms to remove hateful posts within 24 hours of a complaint or hefty fines are imposed. The law has been in force since 2018 and German authorities last year fines Facebook a whopping $2.3 million for under-reporting complaints. 

Read: UK Regulator Urges New Rules To Rein In Google, Facebook

According to reports, Facebook took action on over 1,300 complaints in Germany last year, far fewer than Twitter, YouTube, which reported nearly a quarter of million complaints. The law in Germany has garnered criticism from free speech advocates, who say that it pushes decisions of what counts as a criminal speech on to private companies. Some activists say that it should be the responsibility of the state to monitor hate speech on these platforms rather than putting the onus on service providers. Facebook in the fourth quarter of 2019 took action on 5.7 million pieces of content globally, which rose to 9.6 million in the first quarter of 2020. Facebook said 90 percent of those content were detected and removed after internal monitoring. 

Read: Facebook Civil Rights Audit: 'serious Setbacks' Mar Progress

Boycott by advertisers

Facebook is facing advertisement boycott by advertisers who want the platform to become more proactive in taking action against hate speeches. After many advertisers including Unilever, Starbucks, Verizon, and Pepsico have decided to pause advertising on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that his company will flag all posts that break its rules and policy but are deemed newsworthy. Facebook was the only major social media company that had not taken any decision related to political or hateful posts after Twitter, YouTube, Reddit announced a change in its policy. 

Read: Puma To Stop All Paid Ads On Facebook, Instagram As It Joins #StopHateforProfit Campaign

Read: Facebook Bans 'violent' US-based Boogaloo Network From Its Platform