Welcome to this weeks’ Social Media Law News.
Are Germany’s proposed social media law reforms a step in the right direction towards accountability or are they a threat to freedom of speech?
“Germany’s justice minister has proposed a law that could lead to social networks such as Facebook being hit with heavy fines if they fail to remove illegal hate speech from their sites.
Heiko Maas, who has been highly critical of Facebook’s efforts to clamp down on outlawed racist and xenophobic posts, said on Tuesday the new measures could carry penalties of up to €50m (£44m).
He noted the draft law, which will require the approval of Angela Merkel’s cabinet and then parliament, followed several months in which companies had been allowed to take voluntary measures.”