Even though large social media sites like Facebook and Twitter already have an army of online thought police, that is not enough for a number of German states. They want even tighter laws to help remove “hate speech” from these sites.
German states have drafted a list of demands aimed at tightening a law that requires social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to remove hate speech from their sites, the Handelblatt newspaper reported on Monday.
Justice ministers from the states will submit their proposed revisions to the German law called NetzDG at a meeting with Justice Minister Katarina Barley on Thursday, the newspaper said, saying it had obtained a draft of the document.
The law, which came into full force on Jan. 1, is a highly ambitious effort to control what appears on social media and it has drawn a range of criticism.
While the German states are focused on concerns about how complaints are processed, other officials have called for changes following criticism that too much content was being blocked.
The states’ justice ministers are calling for changes that would make it easier for people who want to complain about banned content such as pro-Nazi ideology to find the required forms on social media platforms.
So they want new laws requiring these social media companies to make it even easier for people to whine about wrong thoughts. But is it even possible for these companies to be any more stringent without making these sites unusable? At this point, they might as well just discuss banning social media sites entirely.
What’s ironic is that Germany is a country with a recent history of secret police and spying. You would think that this would dissuade people from pushing for laws like this.
Germany is literally one of the most totalitarian countries on the planet. What other country goes out of its way to enforce unenforceable anti-free speech laws on its own population?
