How do you stop fake news? In Germany, with a law.

[Guest Nicole]

Adam Berry/Getty Images

By Anthony Faiola and Stephanie Kirchner April 5 at 4:55 PM 

BERLIN — Germany officially unveiled a landmark social-media bill Wednesday that could quickly turn this nation into a test case in the effort to combat the spread of fake news and hate speech in the West.

The highly anticipated draft bill is also highly contentious, with critics denouncing it as a curb on free speech. If passed, as now appears likely, the measure would compel large outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to rapidly remove fake news that incites hate, as well as other “criminal” content, or face fines as high as 50 million euros ($53 million).

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet agreed on the draft bill Wednesday, giving it a high chance of approval in the German Parliament before national elections in September. In effect, the move is Germany’s response to a barrage of fake news during last year’s elections in the United States, with officials seeking to prevent a similar onslaught here.

Already, a few fake news reports have emerged in Germany. One falsely alleged that a German girl of Russian descent was raped last year by asylum seekers. Repeated by high-level Russian officials, the reports seemed aimed at Merkel’s open-door policy for refugees.

Merkel is now involved in a strenuous campaign for a fourth term in office.

“The providers of social networks are responsible when their platforms are misused to spread hate crime or illegal false news,” German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement.

The proposed law would apply only within German borders. But Maas said Wednesday he would press for similar measures across the European Union.

A number of European countries have also sought to counter the fake-news scourge. The Czech Republic recently inaugurated a special unit charged with denouncing false reports. Should the German measure become law, however, experts say it would amount to the boldest step yet by a major Western nation to control social-media content. Depending on how obviously false or illegal a post is, companies would have as little as 24 hours to remove it.

In addition to fake news and hate speech, the draft bill would target posts seen as inciting terrorism or spreading child pornography. Officials have cited a surge of hate speech across the Internet as a major factor behind the rise of far-right violence in Germany, including arson attacks at refugee centers and assaults on police officers.

“Germany considers itself a pioneer,” said Markus Beckedahl, a prominent German Internet activist and blogger. “It’s a solo effort . . . but the European Commission will certainly watch closely what Germany is doing.”

Yet the broad nature of the bill prompted critics to call it an overreach that risks becoming de facto censorship. Stephan Scherzer, chairman of the Association of German Magazine Publishers, said the measure could turn big social-media companies into “private opinion police.”

Green Party politician Renate Künast told public broadcaster ARD that the bill could lead to “a sharp limitation of freedom of speech, because there will only be deleting, deleting, deleting.”

One of the companies most affected by the bill is Facebook, which has sought to sidestep such laws by taking voluntary measures to curb the spread of fake news. The company echoed concerns that the bill would wrongly foist upon corporations a level of decision-making on the legality of content that should instead reside with German courts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-do-you-stop-fake-news-in-germany-with-a-law/2017/04/05/e6834ad6-1a08-11e7-bcc2-7d1a0973e7b2_story.html?utm_term=.416ac5a58cc1

[Queen Esther]

What's behind the fake news ...        ( STADE  -  my  town )
The wrong message:
This picture uses the AfD  'Stade'  2016 on the topic of "internal security" in their election campaign brochure. On the sticker on the back of the attacker stands "Antifaschistische Aktion". The AfD writes: "Rechtsstaat am Boden". Credible? No !

The story behind it....
The original image comes from Greece and emerged during protests in 2009. The AfD tells the NDR on demand: "This is not the original image, it is a symbolic image." Thus the AfD put an antifascist logo on the jacket of the racquet with a bit of image processing and brought the picture into another temporal and local context.

How to recognize fake news....

Thursday, April 6, 2017
Internet Media USA InternationalFacebook gives users tips on how to recognize fake news.

Menlo Park (dpa) - Facebook wants to give its users tips on how they can better recognize fake messages. Members of the online network in 14 countries receive a banner with ten recommendations for three days, announced. One had deliberately decided for a limited duration, said Facebook manager Adam Mosseri. "If you take it too long, it can have an opposite effect." The advice is, for example, to pay attention to the web address or the name of the alleged source.

The EU Parliament is looking for ways to counter hatred, populism and fake news in the social media. Concrete measures, such as the "poison against Western values" can be made, but are not in sight for the time being. A "Ministry of Truth" was rejected by all.

Wrong messages on the net now influence the world. But how do readers distinguish truth and lie? And where can you report fake news?
Many informations in the Internet ~~~~~~~