The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Berlin/ AFP
German prosecutors said on Monday they have launched a probe after receiving a complaint alleging that top Facebook bosses including founder Mark Zuckerberg are condoning hate speech, as pressure grows on the social network to clamp down on racist content.
The probe comes as top politicians are ratcheting up warnings against the US group, with the German justice ministry mulling possible penalties if Facebook failed to remove offensive user commentaries promptly after they have been flagged.
Concern has been rising over the vitriolic comments made by some Facebook and Twitter users in Germany, which have gained intensity as public misgivings grow in some quarters over the almost 900,000 asylum seekers who arrived last year.
Confirming a challenge against Facebook, the spokesman of the Munich prosecution service, Florian Weinzierl, said that “a complaint has been filed by a lawyer that accuses, among others, Mr Zuckerberg” of “the offence of
incitement”. His service is examining if it is the “competent office for such claims and whether there has been criminal conduct”, he said.
Lawyer Chan-jo Jun, who initiated the claim, said he had compiled a list of 438 cases including incitement of hate and violence as well as support for terrorist groups made on Facebook, but which he said the social network has failed to delete even though they have been repeatedly flagged up as offensive speech.
“The management violated German law, by not removing illegal content from Facebook despite being notified, and allowing the content to be publicly available,” Jun said of his complaint, which he said also targets Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and managing director of the northern Europe region Martin Ott.