Germany plans to start fining social networks

The German government developed a bill that provides for penalties for social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, for failure to remove prohibited content. It refers to posts that incite hatred and fake news. The maximum penalty could reach 50 million euros.

"We must increase the pressure on the social network", — said the Minister of justice of Germany Heiko Maas

About a year ago Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have agreed to comply with new EU rules aimed at combating incitement of ethnic, religious and other kinds of hatred on the Internet. Under the agreement with the European Commission, IT companies obliged within 24 hours to respond to manifestations of hatred in their services by deleting the appropriate statements or publications.

German authorities believe that social networks can not cope with its commitments. If the government's proposed bill is passed, then the lack of response to unacceptable content in a timely timing Twitter and Facebook would be liable.

Angela Merkel supported the idea of regulation of content in social networks. In her opinion, this will allow to deal with populist movements that are increasingly common throughout Europe.