Photo: DPAThe German government on Wednesday approved fines of up to €50 million against online giants that fail to remove hate speech and fake news reported by users within a week. Executives of social media groups like Twitter and Facebook also risk individual fines up to five million euros in case of non-compliance, said the government in a statement. Since the arrival of around one million asylum seekers in Germany since 2015, the volume of xenophobic hate speech has exploded online. Alarmed by the incendiary nature of many posts, the government has repeatedly warned the online giants to take action to better police the content on their networks. Beyond hate speech and fake news, the draft legislation also covers other illegal content, including child pornography and terror-related activity.

Source: The Local April 05, 2017 09:56 UTC