German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled on Saturday that she was prepared to consider changes to a widely criticised new law that aims to rid social media of hate speech. "Of course we're now looking at what consequences this law has and what happens, and we'll definitely evaluate it too," Merkel said in her weekly video podcast. Merkel said the internet was not a legal vacuum and the new law ensured that platform operators were responsible for the content that they disseminated. Opposition parties have condemned the law, saying it was wrong for private companies to be making decisions about whether posts are unlawful. Top-selling Bild newspaper has also called for it to be scrapped, saying it was stifling free speech and making martyrs out of anti-immigrant politicians whose posts are deleted.

Source: dna February 03, 2018 12:33 UTC