131 Germany Plans Creation of Center Of Defense Against Fake News, Report Says
Deut-sche Welle, Dec. 23, 2016. Carla Bleiker &
Kate Brady, Bundestag Passes Law to Fine Social Media Companies for not Deleting Hate Speech
Deutsche Welle, June 30, 2017.
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Thorsten Severin & Emma Thomasson,‘‘German Parliament Backs Plan to Fine Social Media Over Hate Speech
Reuters, June 30, 2017. Richard Allan, Vice President for Public Policy EMEA,
Facebook Ireland,‘‘Update on German Elections Facebook blog post, Sept. 27, 2017, https://de.newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/09/up- date-zu-den-wahlen (visited Dec. 30, 2017).
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Lisa-Maria N. Neudert,
Computational Propaganda in Germany A Cautionary Tale, Uni- versity of Oxford, at 23 (June 2017). German Federal Ministry of the Interior,
Cyber Security Strategy for Germany, Nov. 2016. German Army
Launches New Cyber Command Deutsche Welle, Apr. 1, 2017. ommending an intensification of political education work with those groups.
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In June 2017, the German parliament passed legislation that enabled fines of up to ÷50 million for social media companies that failed to remove obviously illegal content within 24 hours, or that failed to assess likely false content and remove it within seven days. While the law increased incentives for social media companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to police the content on their platforms, critics of the law called it a concerning legal model that possibly infringes on free speech and places too much power in the hands of companies to curb content simply to avoid fines.
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The government also relied on Germany’s already relatively stringent laws on defamation and hate speech that promotes violence against minorities.
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Facebook reported that it increased its efforts throughout the German parliamentary election campaign period, providing candidates with cybersecurity training, working directly with the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)
national cybersecurity office, and removing tens of thousands of fake accounts.
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While German government, business, and civil society actors have deployed vigorous action against the causes and effects of information manipulation and dissemination, some experts have noted difficulties enforcing strengthened legal regimes and the risk they pose to freedom of expression, and have urged that the German government couple its monitoring and oversight of online propaganda with increasing media literacy among the population
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