Germany Acts to Tame Facebook, Learning From Its Own History of Hate

JonesBones

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I am 100% on team Snapchat now. I was talking to some people and reading some articles. Old people and politics have ruined Facebook, like it has this forum. And everything else in the world. Boring motherfuckers. Facebook is like the War Room times a billion except its stupidity actually gets people killed. I realized Snapchat is isolated from this nonsense. Anyway, this is a pickle for everybody. Good article from the New York Times:

BERLIN — Security is tight at this brick building on the western edge of Berlin. Inside, a sign warns: “Everybody without a badge is a potential spy!”

Spread over five floors, hundreds of men and women sit in rows of six scanning their computer screens. All have signed nondisclosure agreements. Four trauma specialists are at their disposal seven days a week.

They are the agents of Facebook. And they have the power to decide what is free speech and what is hate speech.

This is a deletion center, one of Facebook’s largest, with more than 1,200 content moderators. They are cleaning up content — from terrorist propaganda to Nazi symbols to child abuse — that violates the law or the company’s community standards.

Germany, home to a tough new online hate speech law, has become a laboratory for one of the most pressing issues for governments today: how and whether to regulate the world’s biggest social network.

Around the world, Facebook and other social networking platforms are facing a backlash over their failures to safeguard privacy, disinformation campaigns and the digital reach of hate groups.

In India, seven people were beaten to death after a false viral message on the Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp. In Myanmar, violence against the Rohingya minority was fueled, in part, by misinformation spread on Facebook. In the United States, Congress called Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, to testify about the company’s inability to protect its users’ privacy.

As the world confronts these rising forces, Europe, and Germany in particular, have emerged as the de facto regulators of the industry, exerting influence beyond their own borders. Berlin’s digital crackdown on hate speech, which took effect on Jan. 1, is being closely watched by other countries. And German officials are playing a major role behind one of Europe’s most aggressive moves to rein in technology companies, strict data privacy rules that take effect across the European Union on May 25 and are prompting global changes.



In the country of the Holocaust, the commitment against hate speech is as fierce as the commitment to free speech. Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is only available in an annotated version. Swastikas are illegal. Inciting hatred is punishable by up to five years in jail.

The far-right Alternative of Germany, a noisy and prolific user of social media, has been quick to proclaim “the end of free speech.” Human rights organizations have warned that the legislation was inspiring authoritarian governments to copy it.

Other people argue that the law simply gives a private company too much authority to decide what constitutes illegal hate speech in a democracy, an argument that Facebook, which favored voluntary guidelines, made against the law.

“It is perfectly appropriate for the German government to set standards,” said Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of communications and public policy. “But we think it’s a bad idea for the German government to outsource the decision of what is lawful and what is not.”

But banned posts, pictures and videos have routinely lingered on Facebook and other social media platforms. Now companies that systematically fail to remove “obviously illegal” content within 24 hours face fines of up to 50 million euros.


Gonna get interesting. Germany's stupid hate speech laws vs Facebook.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/technology/facebook-deletion-center-germany.html
 
It will certainly be interesting. Also, Facebook has really reinforced my belief that most people are complete fucking imbeciles.
 
So controlling other peoples speech is the lesson they learned from their history? Wow.
 
tldr:

By compelling the social-media company to remove the post, it would, in effect, be enforcing German speech law internationally, even in places where the post’s content would be perfectly legal.


Maybe a great firewall of Germany? That would be hilarious. lol.
 
Yea stopping freedom of speach is a great way to keep a country free.

The more this stupid shit is spread the more I love our 1st amendment.
 
Das Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz.
 
This stuff isn't isolated to Germany. The same politics applies more in an empire sense, so expect to see attempts to role out the same agendas across the EU, and elsewhere.

'Hate speach' is the blanket in which the powers behind it have chosen to push forward, because it is such a vague concept and tends to confuse people.

At the end of the day it's a way to enforce politics and ideology to serve empire and it only really goes in one direction.
 
Instead of assuming that the country that had one of the most infamous and destructive rhetoricians of all time rise to power may have learned a thing or two from their experience, let's just assume they're idiots herp derp 1st amendment lol.

American arrogance knows no limits. Even if they are overreacting, preventing the rise of another Hitler seems like fairgrounds for overreation. When a 17 year old college student says she hates free speech, people call for the dissolution of the institution of higher education. But a country takes measures to prevent genocide and international war and they're the ones overreacting.
 
I am 100% on team Snapchat now. I was talking to some people and reading some articles. Old people and politics have ruined Facebook, like it has this forum. And everything else in the world. Boring motherfuckers. Facebook is like the War Room times a billion except its stupidity actually gets people killed. I realized Snapchat is isolated from this nonsense. Anyway, this is a pickle for everybody. Good article from the New York Times:

BERLIN — Security is tight at this brick building on the western edge of Berlin. Inside, a sign warns: “Everybody without a badge is a potential spy!”

Spread over five floors, hundreds of men and women sit in rows of six scanning their computer screens. All have signed nondisclosure agreements. Four trauma specialists are at their disposal seven days a week.

They are the agents of Facebook. And they have the power to decide what is free speech and what is hate speech.

This is a deletion center, one of Facebook’s largest, with more than 1,200 content moderators. They are cleaning up content — from terrorist propaganda to Nazi symbols to child abuse — that violates the law or the company’s community standards.

Germany, home to a tough new online hate speech law, has become a laboratory for one of the most pressing issues for governments today: how and whether to regulate the world’s biggest social network.

Around the world, Facebook and other social networking platforms are facing a backlash over their failures to safeguard privacy, disinformation campaigns and the digital reach of hate groups.

In India, seven people were beaten to death after a false viral message on the Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp. In Myanmar, violence against the Rohingya minority was fueled, in part, by misinformation spread on Facebook. In the United States, Congress called Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, to testify about the company’s inability to protect its users’ privacy.

As the world confronts these rising forces, Europe, and Germany in particular, have emerged as the de facto regulators of the industry, exerting influence beyond their own borders. Berlin’s digital crackdown on hate speech, which took effect on Jan. 1, is being closely watched by other countries. And German officials are playing a major role behind one of Europe’s most aggressive moves to rein in technology companies, strict data privacy rules that take effect across the European Union on May 25 and are prompting global changes.



In the country of the Holocaust, the commitment against hate speech is as fierce as the commitment to free speech. Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is only available in an annotated version. Swastikas are illegal. Inciting hatred is punishable by up to five years in jail.

The far-right Alternative of Germany, a noisy and prolific user of social media, has been quick to proclaim “the end of free speech.” Human rights organizations have warned that the legislation was inspiring authoritarian governments to copy it.

Other people argue that the law simply gives a private company too much authority to decide what constitutes illegal hate speech in a democracy, an argument that Facebook, which favored voluntary guidelines, made against the law.

“It is perfectly appropriate for the German government to set standards,” said Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of communications and public policy. “But we think it’s a bad idea for the German government to outsource the decision of what is lawful and what is not.”

But banned posts, pictures and videos have routinely lingered on Facebook and other social media platforms. Now companies that systematically fail to remove “obviously illegal” content within 24 hours face fines of up to 50 million euros.


Gonna get interesting. Germany's stupid hate speech laws vs Facebook.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/technology/facebook-deletion-center-germany.html


This is what happens when you give leftist control. It is the group and no longer individuals.
 
Instead of assuming that the country that had one of the most infamous and destructive rhetoricians of all time rise to power may have learned a thing or two from their experience, let's just assume they're idiots herp derp 1st amendment lol.

American arrogance knows no limits. Even if they are overreacting, preventing the rise of another Hitler seems like fairgrounds for overreation. When a 17 year old college student says she hates free speech, people call for the dissolution of the institution of higher education. But a country takes measures to prevent genocide and international war and they're the ones overreacting.

Prevent genocide by controlling what people can read? Fuck that I've got a gun expressly for the day some UN blue hat tells me what I can say or read.
 
'Hate speach' is the blanket in which the powers behind it have chosen to push forward, because it is such a vague concept and tends to confuse people.
What those opposed to hate really believe is only they should be allowed to hate.
 
Prevent genocide by controlling what people can read? Fuck that I've got a gun expressly for the day some UN blue hat tells me what I can say or read.

Do you seriously not remember how the Holocaust got started?
 
Instead of assuming that the country that had one of the most infamous and destructive rhetoricians of all time rise to power may have learned a thing or two from their experience, let's just assume they're idiots herp derp 1st amendment lol.

American arrogance knows no limits. Even if they are overreacting, preventing the rise of another Hitler seems like fairgrounds for overreation. When a 17 year old college student says she hates free speech, people call for the dissolution of the institution of higher education. But a country takes measures to prevent genocide and international war and they're the ones overreacting.

This is stupid logic. So a person who got in a car accident is an expert on how to prevent car accidents?

Germany needs counseling. Seriously. They need to get over their guilt and move on. Hitler still has power over them. They still react to him. He still affects policy. His ghost is still scaring us. Enough already.
 
Do you seriously not remember how the Holocaust got started?
\
Yes it had a lot to do with reparations payments that left thousands starving after WWI. Germany defaulted and hyperinflation happened. That left the door open to WWII not free speech.
 
Instead of assuming that the country that had one of the most infamous and destructive rhetoricians of all time rise to power may have learned a thing or two from their experience, let's just assume they're idiots herp derp 1st amendment lol.

American arrogance knows no limits. Even if they are overreacting, preventing the rise of another Hitler seems like fairgrounds for overreation. When a 17 year old college student says she hates free speech, people call for the dissolution of the institution of higher education. But a country takes measures to prevent genocide and international war and they're the ones overreacting.
Sending people to prison for using verbotten language is down-right regressive and shows that Germany learned very little and is merely being reactionary.
 
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Yes it had a lot to do with reparations payments that left thousands starving after WWI. Germany defaulted and hyperinflation happened. That left the door open to WWII not free speech.

I didn't say WWII, I said the Holocaust.
 
tumblr_oa45paDGGN1ss9dfho1_500.gif
 
Sending people to prison for using verbotten language is down-right regressive and shows that Germany learned very little and is mere being reactionary.

Well, what are the potential consequences to policing language? Are they worse than the Holocaust? If free speech is dangerous and restricting free speech is also dangerous, then it seems they are stuck trying to identify the lesser of two evils.

I agree that they are being reactionary, but I think 1. This is a pretty understandable reaction; and 2. not being as reactionary as people here are assuming. I think a good portion of it is coming from wisdom.
 
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