“This will set binding standards for how companies running social networks must handle complaints<br />and require them to delete criminal content,” Mr. Maas said of the proposal, under which companies could face fines of up to 50 million euros, or $53 million.<br />The German criticism over how social media companies handle hate speech and other illicit content online is part of a wider global pushback.<br />In response to this criticism and to a recent tide of hate speech targeting new refugees in Germany, many tech companies agreed<br />to work with the country’s officials in 2015 to remove xenophobic and racist messages from their digital platforms.<br />On Tuesday, Heiko Maas, Germany’s minister of justice and consumer protection, said he would propose a law<br />that would impose stiff fines on companies whose social media platforms did not respond swiftly enough to complaints about illegal content.<br />Yet for a growing number of policy makers in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, the social media companies have a responsibility to block harmful content from their digital platforms, and they must respect national rules<br />that often run counter to Silicon Valley’s efforts to operate across borders.
