Photo: DPAGermany's parliament voted Friday to punish social media giants with fines of up to €50 million if they systematically fail to remove illegal hate speech. Under German law, Holocaust denial, incitement of hatred, and racist and anti-Semitic speech are illegal. MUST READ: How Germany's 'hate speech' law will put control of free speech in private handsThey also said it would give social networks, rather than the authorities, the power to decide which content flouts the law. Political pressureUnder the new law, companies like Twitter and Facebook would have 24 hours to remove posts that openly violate German law after they are flagged by users. Beyond hate speech, the legislation also covers other illegal content, including child pornography and terror-related postings.

Source: The Local June 30, 2017 10:18 UTC