Of course, the rub is just what constitutes ‘fake news”. In the latest round of persecution of Vancouver dissident videographer Brian Ruhe, the management of the Meet Up site has decided that any reference to or link to ‘holocaust denial” is forbidden. So, you can question the existence of God or UFOs, but not a single tenet of the new secular religion of ‘Holocaust”.
Europeans will have to fight hard for their much diminished freedoms of speech and assembly.
Angela Merkel, the old former (?) communist is holding true to the authoritarian repressiion she learned in her youth.
Germany is coming completely undone.
In a move that will most certainly lead the way to other EU vassal states adopting similar measures, Angela Merkel is considering imposing a 500,000 euros ($522,000) fine on Facebook, and other social media platforms, for each day they leave a “fake news” story up without deleting it.
The German government will consider the bill in the new year. The initiative has bipartisan support, allowing both official and private complainants to flag content that is considered “fake news”.
The law forces social networks to create in-country offices focused on responding to takedown demands, and makes social networks legally responsible for compensation, if a post by individual users were found to slander someone…and we are confident that no private individuals will abuse such laws for financial gain.
With George Soros financing the “third-party fact checking” organization retained to flag, and censor “fake news” on Facebook, we are positive that any publication not of the neo-liberal, globalist kind, will be properly removed from social media platforms, so as to avoid Merkel’s book burning fine.
Germany’s parliamentary chief of the Social Democrat party, Thomas Oppermann in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine said…
“If after the relevant checks Facebook does not immediately, within 24 hours, delete the offending post then [it] must reckon with severe penalties of up to 500,000 euros.”
After such laws are passed in Germany, if Facebook were truly an open communication platform, they should pull out of Germany and see how the populace reacts to Merkel’s brutal attack on free speech.
Do not be fooled, this is a move that clamps down on free speech, and is something a dictator in a banana republic would do.
Merkel, for her part will brush such claims aside, and resort to the standard EU/US excuse of blaming Russia for their home grown sinister agenda to rule their nations with an iron fist.
Heat Street reports that the legislation is being push to combat Russian election hacking in Germany, before such elections take place, and with no evidence of such hacking having been proven by German of US officials.
German lawmakers believe this bill will help tackle the possibility of Russia meddling in Parliamentary elections scheduled for next year. This follows the allegations that the Kremlin was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee that led to the leak of thousands of emails by key aides to Hillary Clinton.
The German intelligence agency has warned that Russia could try to undermine the elections next year by employing automated bots on social media to spread fake news articles.
Some members of the government have advocated criminalizing the spread of so-called “fake news”. Patrick Sensburg, a senior MP in Merkel’s party said recently: “Targeting disinformation to destabilize a state should be a criminal offence.”
Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, told Bild am Sonntag: “Facebook is earning an awful lot of money with fake news.” He added: “A company that earns billions from the internet also has a social responsibility.”
