Facebook, Google, Twitter take stronger stand on hate speech

The companies have agreed to set up special teams in Germany to delete hate speech within 24 hours

(Updated with comment from Facebook)

Hate speech is a tricky area for a lot of people. Of course most of us do not support language that is racist or misogynistic or anti-semetic. But we also have to protect the right of someone to say that stuff, in order to make sure that our rights are protected too. After all, you ban one kind of speech and you can ban any kind of speech. Slippery slopes, and all that.

Germany, perhaps more than many other countries, knows what hateful rhetoric can lead to, though. The country has had some of the strictest anti-hate speech laws on the continent since the end of the Second World War, for obvious reasons. And so it has decided to do something about a recent rise in such language by forcing tech companies to up the ante.

On Tuesday, Facebook, Google, Twitter all agreed to delete hate speech that violates German laws from their websites within 24 hours, according to a report from Reuters. The new agreement makes it easier for users and anti-racism groups to report hate speech by creating specialist teams to deal with these incidents at the three companies.

"We're committed to working with Governments on this issue and work to review the majority of flagged content within 24 hours. YouTube's policies have long prohibited hate speech and extremism, and we comply quickly with valid law enforcement requests," a spokesperson for Google told VatorNews.

"There's no place for hate speech, incitement or glorification of violence on Facebook. We urge people to use our reporting tools if they find content that they believe violates our standards so we can investigate and take swift action. We review of the vast majority of reports within 24 hours," a Facebook spokesperson said.

Specifically, the recent rise in hate speech has been as a result of the Syrian refugee crisis, over a million of whom are set to be coming to Germany in the coming year. 

As anyone who has ever waded into a comment section on any website knows, the Internet is a cesspool of disgusting, ugly thoughts. Until now, most companies seemed to be content with defining terms of service, and updating its user guidelines, much like Facebook has done in the past when confronted with such problems, without really taking action. This is the boldest action taken yet, and may actually result in real change for people who are made to feel unsafe on these sites. 

"When the limits of free speech are trespassed, when it is about criminal expressions, sedition, incitement to carry out criminal offenses that threaten people, such content has to be deleted from the net," German Justice Minister Heiko Maas is quoted as saying about the agreement.

"And we agree that as a rule this should be possible within 24 hours."

It should be noted that Google, Facebook and Twitter did not come up with this plan on their own. It was result of an investigation into Facebook by the Germany government last month over whether or not Facebook had failed to remove hate speech.

There are some things that are still a little bit fuzzy about this agreement, including whether or not posts taken down in Germany will still be able to be seen by those in other countries. It also is not entirely clear if those who have their posts taken down will be able to appeal the decision.

Mark Zuckerberg has, in a way, been talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue. While at once voicing support of Muslims, telling them, "you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you," he has also defaulted to the "it's free speech" argument when confronted with hateful language used on Facebook.

"We're trying to connect everyone in the world and give everyone a voice," Zuckerberg said in a town hall meeting following the Charle Hebdo attacks in Paris in January. "This is about freedom of expression."

Now it looks as thought Germany has finally forced his hand. Of course, what actually constitutes hate speech might just depend on who is doing the talking, and who is listening. It's a grey area, and hopefully all three companies will tread carefully, and not go overboard censoring its users. 

VatorNews has reached out to Twitter for a statement on the agreement. We will update this story if we learn more. 

(Image source: thefederalistpapers.org)