Subtitle: "For chrissakes don't let them know what we've done"


Twitter and Facebook block German politician's posts

Storm erupts after far-right AfD politician's posts are censored under new law combating hate speech on social media.

In the first use of a new law that bans hate speech online, Twitter and Facebook have moved against a far-right German politician after she posted a racism-filled Tweet criticizing the police for wishing a happy new year in Arabic in addition to other languages.

Facing a fine of €50 million ($60 million) for failing to comply with the new rules, Twitter blocked for 12 hours the account belonging to Beatrix von Storch, who is the deputy parliamentary leader for the Alternative for Germany party. The anti-immigration party won 12.6 percent of the vote in last September’s national elections and entered the German parliament for the first time. She then repeated the Tweet on Facebook, which deleted it, saying it had received complaints that it violated local laws against incitement.

Police said Ms. Von Storch is being investigated for incitement, which is a crime in Germany. But other leaders of the AfD, as then party is known in Germany, attacked the US social media firms for censorship for enforcing the new German law, which took effect Monday. Alice Weidel, parliamentary leader for the party, also had her account temporarily shut down.

The train of events began when Cologne police tweeted a New Year’s greeting in Arabic. Ignoring similar posts in other languages — including English and French —, Ms. von Storch shot back on Twitter: “What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?”

That was a reference to the fact that Cologne was the scene two years ago of sexual assaults of hundreds of German women during New Year celebrations. Recent Muslim asylum seekers were accused of committing the crimes.

After Ms. von Storch’s tweet was deleted, she vented on Facebook along the same lines. But within a few hours, her Facebook post was erased too. The AfD’s deputy leader then wrote: “Facebook has now also censored me. This is the end of the rule of law.”

Both Twitter and Facebook as well as YouTube had campaigned against adoption of the new law, called the Network Enforcement Act, which gives social media firms 24 hours to remove content considered sedition, a threat, insult or slander. Civil rights groups have also raised concern about the possible chilling effect on free speech the law could have.

“The (law) puts companies under enormous time pressure when checking reported content,” said Bernhard Rohleder, the CEO of computer industry association Bitkom . “The high fines reinforce this pressure. This will inevitably lead to the deletion of permitted content.”

It’s unclear whether tweets from President Trump and other politicians. for example, could be deleted if they mention Muslims and social media users in Germany complain about them.

Facebook has been under extreme pressure since the US presidential election, when it was disclosed that thousands of news posts on the social media website were fake reports created by Russian websites with the intention of discrediting the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.

:Handelsblatt

Would you like to see Germany change its anti-Nazi laws, Bogie? These were introduced by the allies in 1949.

I'm curious. Do you think it's time for a change?

bogarde73 wrote on Jan 5^th, 2018 at 2:05pm:


Perhaps you could inform me about these laws, Bogie.

But please answer the question first. Would you like to see Germany change its anti-Nazi laws?

Cheers.

issuevoter wrote on Jan 5^th, 2018 at 8:47pm:


People like me created Germany's post-war legal code after we won the war, Issue.

You?

Mattyfisk wrote on Jan 5^th, 2018 at 2:13pm:


You never address the issue do you? Banal cryptic comments is all that usually comes out.
My answer is I don't want to see a Nazi party but neither do I want to see free speech suppressed by Angela Hitler.

Now your turn: are you a Muslim? I'm curious.

bogarde73 wrote on Jan 6^th, 2018 at 11:11am:


Germany has laws in place to prevent the return of Nazis. Germany, however, has a new problem: Putin. The aim of Merkel's Facebook fines is to prevent the disinformation campaigns Putin has launched all over Europe. German democracy is fighting a new battle. Russian bot and fake news campaigns are not engaging on free speech. Mark Zuckerberg now acknowledges this.

I was in Dachau recently, and did a tour of the concentration camp. The tour leaders pointed the above out. Germany is now under threat from new Nazi elements - many of them waged from outside Germany. The US Bible belt has funded a German anti-Muslim campaign, linked to Pegida, a far-right German nationalist movement. They had a tent in Munich Karlsplatz with big video screens - an American Jewish woman giving an anti-Islam speech in the US subtitled in German.

If Germans want to keep the Nazis at bay, they need to fight external propaganda campaigns that aim to turn Germany back to the 1930s. You know exactly what I'm talking about, Bogie. You're an immigrant in Australia telling Europeans what to do. You have very little idea of the issues you're discussing, you haven't even been to most of these countries. You have a one-issue take on European politics: stop immigration. It's a foreign, transnational agenda, you have little knowledge where much of your information comes from, and you have absolutely no idea of the issues on the ground.

You know I'm not Muslim. Now feel free to answer the question. Should Germany be free to enforce it's anti-Nazi laws, or should it defer to Russian and American propaganda under the fake banner of free speech?

If you give tbis some tbought, I'll be most surprised.

Bias_2012 wrote on Jan 6^th, 2018 at 1:32pm:


Germany has good reason to be fixated on Nazism, Bias, but an even better reason to be fixated on Russia. Just look at the US election as a case in point.

Facebook was initially reluctant to look into this problem. It's taken them a while to see how Russian agents are using Facebook to spread propaganda and stolen information. Zuckerberg has woken up to the fact that Facebook could very easily become a propaganda technology rather than a free speech one. After all, it now has ads. Facebook makes its money from funded and targeted social media campaigns.

Putin is an expert on this, funding political campaigns in Georgia, Finland and the Ukraine for over a decade. He has now spread his sites as far as the US, but Europe is his real target. Putin's IT War uses hacking, disinformation and disrupting government sites. There's a theory our recent census was attacked by Russian agents. I'm not sure of the accuracy of this, but the method is precisely what Russia has done in its former Soviet satellites.

Merkel has pointed all this out. Zuckerberg has agreed to help. Germany has uncovered Russian hacks and disinformation campaigns directly targeting its government - this is the main threat to democracy in the world right now. The technology can be used to steal information and confuse the public, or it can be used by the public to freely express themselves.

Which would you prefer?

Mattyfisk wrote on Jan 6^th, 2018 at 2:53pm:


And you don't think that the US tries to interfere in elections in Russia?