German parliament votes in favour of law on social media fines

From October onwards, social media platforms with more than two million German users need to remove ‘obviously illegal’ content within 24 hours or risk a fine that could rise to €50 million. The German parliament voted in favour of this law after months of discussion. In response to the new law, Facebook reconfirmed its commitment to fighting illegal content, but states that ‘this law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem‘. The Internet industry claims that these tight deadlines are ‘unrealistic’ and can lead to ‘accidental censorship’. UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, argued that ‘the obligations placed upon private companies to regulate and take down content raises concern with respect to freedom of expression‘.