Earlier this week Germany passed a very controversial law that not only breeches net neutrality of many levels, but also censors and puts companies at risk if they allow people on their platform to speak out. The law was made in order to combat hate speech against people on social media, but the problem is the definition of hate speech they use is very open to interpretation. With claims that if places like Facebook, google, ect, don’t crack down on posts that exhibit hate speech within a weeks time, they risk a fine of around 50 million dollars , per case!
Not only is this law ridiculous, but it holds companies accountable for what their users say and how they act. With the amount of Facebook posts being put up every day, it is insane to expect them to remove every single post that might be considered hate speech with a week. There is no algorithm that could possibly remove every single post within that time period, meaning they will have to hire people to literally just read posts all day and remove ones that “might” be considered offensive. The key word is here is “might” because there is a fine line between disagreement and hate speech.
Some people on the internet are very sensitive and label many things that are clearly not hate speech as such. If Facebook puts in a “remove now, review later” policy in regards to posting, it will become very easy to censor people that disagree with you. Facebook is essential in the organization of groups that often might have fringe ideals, but it doesn’t mean they are hate speech. The potential abuse this law gives to other Facebook users is very frightening. Entire groups and organizations risk being shut down because they might just pose too high of a risk for Facebook. This is the same shit we see with banks shutting down bitcoin accounts because the government threatens to fine them if they have even a hint someone is doing something that isn’t completely by the books. Facebook will blacklist users the same exact way.
In many ways it is a breach of freedom of speech rights, not just for Germans, but for many other countries. How is facebook supposed to differentiate from a German speaking American or a German speaking German? They wont, they will just indiscriminately ban posts because they are afraid of the backlash. Germany in general doesn’t have a great freedom of speech past and their laws today reflect that as well. In an effort to stop the rise of Nazism after WWII many things like saying Heil Hitler, showing a swastika, ect are illegal and can give you jail time. This is not how a country that is one of the most developed in the world should act.
There is no doubt that hate speech is a problem online, but this is the wrong way about addressing the problem. It seems like this solution was put up with zero thought to real consequences and increases government control over what is supposed to be a free internet. The internet is and will never be a safe space. That very feature is what makes the internet so powerful in toppling regimes around the world and keeps governments in check.
Thanks to @Elyaque for the badges