German Justice Ministry proposes fining social media platforms up to €50 million for failing to remove illegal content fast enough

The German Justice Ministry has proposed a draft law that would fine social media companies up to €50 million (about $53.2 million) for failing to remove hate speech, “fake news,” threats or other illegal content fast enough. As part of the law, the ministry is also asking social media companies to name one person responsible for handling the complaints — and in cases where the company doesn’t respond fast enough, that person could be fined up to €5 million (about $5.3 million). Under the law, content that is “obviously illegal” would have to be removed within 24 hours, while other reported content that is later determined to be illegal would have to be removed within 7 days.

+ “The self-commitments of the companies led to initial improvements. But these are not sufficient. Too few comments are deleted. And they’re not being deleted quickly enough,” said German Justice Minister Heiko Maas (Deutsche Welle)