Fooled no more, hate no more

Facebook to be fined 500,000 euros for each fake news and hate post in Germany.

Tired of falling in the trap of fake news or being subjected to hate messages on social media all the time? Looks like Germany finally found a solution for that. It has partnered with a third-party fact-checkers and has made it mandatory for Facebook and other social media to remove such content from its platform. Else, it may face the possibility of massive fines for each piece of misinformation and hate. The proposed legislation would levy a 500,000 euros fine if the social networks failed to remove offending messages containing hate speech or fake news within 24 hours.

Considering that there are posts by 1.75-billion Facebook users, scouting for offensive content would be a logistical issue but if you do a mental math, the total fines would be an unprecedented number.

This also means that market dominating platforms like Facebook will be required to build a legal protection office in Germany that is available 24X7. However, since Facebook is a US-based company, it’s not clear though if Germany would have any recourse in collecting the fines or it may have to end up doing a country-wide shut down of the social network. Or Facebook could do that itself. It could also argue that since it’s merely a platform for user-created content, the fines must be routed to the individuals posting it.  

The country has approximately 36.8 million Facebook users and is eighth on the list of users.

Source: www.thenextweb.com / The Guardian