Justice Minister
Germany’s Justice Minister Proposes Fines For Online Hate Speech, Fake News
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting of the German government at the chancellery in Berlin. (AP/Markus Schreiber)
BERLIN — Germany’s justice minister is proposing fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 million) for social networking sites that fail to swiftly remove illegal content, such as hate speech or defamatory “fake news.”
The plan announced Tuesday marks a further step in Germany’s attempt to impose its strict domestic laws against incitement on the free-wheeling world of online chatter.