In May 2016, the operators of social platforms within the EU committed themselves to deleting the majority of illegal content from the internet within 24 hours if users report it to them. However, in a joint sample conducted by members of the EU Parliament and a member of the Canadian Parliament, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have largely failed to fulfill this obligation.
On October 25, 2022, nine members of the EU Parliament and one member of the Canadian Parliament reported a total of 125 pieces of anti-Semitic content on the channels provided for this by the platforms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The non-governmental organization “The Online Hate Task Force” had previously made the posts, tweets and videos available to them. At that time, the posts were freely available on the platforms. 24 hours after the MPs reported it, 122 were still online, so only three were deleted. Each platform deleted one of 50 pieces of anti-Semitic content on Facebook, 41 on Twitter and 34 on YouTube. The ARD political magazine report Munich and DIE ZEIT accompanied the attempt by the European Parliamentarians on site.
Deletion within 24 hours not complied with
According to the “ EU Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech ”, which the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube platforms have entered into with the EU, properly reported illegal content would usually have to be deleted after 24 hours. According to an evaluation by the non-governmental organization “The Online Hate Task Force” and the review by parliamentarians, this was not the case.
Nicola Beer: “Disastrous result”
The German Vice-President of the European Parliament, Nicola Beer from the Renew Europe group, which took part in the experiment, considers the result to be frightening:
“It is a catastrophic result: only three out of 125 reported posts were deleted. That means we're not even at three percent. This shows that urgent action is needed here.” She wants to discuss the result with the platforms. “The rules that apply on the street, in the offline world, are also enforced on the Internet,” said EU Parliament Vice President Beer in an interview with the ARD political magazine report Munich and DIE ZEIT.
David Lega wants to contact platforms
Swedish MEP David Lega from the European People's Party (EPP) group was also alarmed by the fact that over 97 percent of the content was still online after the experiment ended:
“These are anti-Semitic texts, lies and images that denigrate Jews in an absolutely terrible way.” He wanted to contact the platforms so that quick deletion processes could be discussed together.
Dietmar Köster: “Clear cases of anti-Semitism identified”
MEP Dietmar Köster from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Social Democrats in the European Parliament, who also took part in the experiment, considers the result to be very worrying:
“We have identified five clear, unambiguous cases of anti-Semitism. We reported these cases to Facebook. There is no reaction to it. These anti-Semitic statements have not been deleted - this means that these platforms, Facebook in particular, are violating their own principles, but also, above all, against their legal obligations." The statements represented a threat to Jews. The platforms would assume their responsibility not fair: “We cannot accept that,” continued Dietmar Köster.
Meta-speaker. “We still have work to do”
At the request of report Munich and DIE ZEIT, a spokeswoman for Facebook parent company Meta refers to a study by the EU Commission from 2021, in which 81 percent of the reported content was evaluated and more than 60 percent was deleted. The speaker also explains:
“Hate speech is unacceptable and we are investing heavily in teams and technology to detect and remove such content before people see it. We know we still have work to do on this.”
The spokeswoman did not comment on the specific anti-Semitic posts that were not deleted within the deadline as part of the experiment.
No reaction from Twitter and YouTube
Following the request, several more of these posts were deleted. The reporters received no answers to their query from Twitter, YouTube or Google .
source
report Munich
DIE ZEIT
BR.de
In keeping with the topic of
Germany: approval, denial and trivialization of genocide
3,965 hate speech proceedings in Bavaria
Hatred and agitation are not trivial offenses and do not fall under freedom of expression
Notes:
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