Germans Lecture Facebook on Racism
In the annals of News You Don’t Expect to Read, this one fits. Recently, a new German Green Party video has blasted Facebook for allowing what it calls a new barrage of hate speech related to the immigrant refugee crisis in Europe. Yes, you read that right, Germans are teaching an American company about racism.
In the video, the Green parliamentary leader Katrin Eckardt recounts some of the anti-immigrant “abuse” she received, describing it as dirt that belongs in the bin, according to the BBC. Eckardt goes on to demand Facebook authorities “ensure that such hate, such dirt no longer appears on Facebook pages.” Which, of course, is well within Facebook’s rights as a private company. That said, Facebook has been notoriously hit or miss in its applications of community standards. One reason, of course, is that internet trolls increase thread activity, time on site and post responses. At some point, though, lines can be crossed. Eckardt read out a string of personal insults directed at her, and, while some of them rang similar to the speech of (at least) one presidential front-runner, the German poll said they were indicative of hate speech, not free speech.
There’s a reason the anti-refugee rhetoric in Germany is worse than other places. That country has taken in many more immigrants than its neighbors … and many Germans are less than thrilled by this dilution of their Fatherland. They have taken to Facebook to express their displeasure, and Eckardt makes a convenient target. Some might say she could use a thicker skin. Others are pointing to Facebook’s rules and shouting their support of Katrin’s convictions. Facebook, to this point, is deferring to its nebulous community standards. According to the “rules,” the company removes “hate speech,” which includes content directly attacking people based on their “race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases”. The kicker, though, is Facebook stands by its policy of letting the community police itself. If enough people complain, it takes a look. If not, the shouting continues.
Enter Angela Merkel. The German Chancellor has also come out against the immigrant insults on Facebook. She asked that the social media site enforce its rules against hate speech in this instance. Now, German Interior Minister Heiko Maas has announced plans to chat with Facebook execs about the problem. According to the German government, some elected officials have begun to receive death threats. Facebook needs to decide — now — whether they want to ignore these threats and chalk them up to basement-dwelling crackpots … or if they want to have to explain why they didn’t act after the fact.
Jonah Engler is a financial expert from NYC.