Politicians from German’s ruling coalition are pushing for more action to stop the spread of fake news, including potentially holding Facebook accountable for quickly deleting posts, German media reported Tuesday.
Amid growing concern Russia may interfere with Germany’s national elections next fall, senior politicians from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), as well as the Social Democratic Party (SPD), have called for increasing the penalty for those running misinformation campaigns.
Thomas Opperman, vice chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, told German media group Funke Medien-gruppe that the ruling coalition will make use of every legal resource and “sharpen” its approach if necessary to fight against “made-up news reports, conspiracy theories, hate and rabble-rousing.”
That may include making Facebook responsible for quickly deleting fake news posts from its site, Opperman said.
CDU Member of Parliament Patrick Sensburg told German media: “Targeted disinformation with the goal to destabilize a state should be punished.”
SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel called for unity on the matter, tweeting Monday: “We @spdde want to join forces with the Christian Democrats against tools like manipulative ‘social bots’ and fight ‘fake news’ together!”
Chancellor Angela Merkel warned last month that Russia could use false news or cyberattacks to influence the 2017 election in Germany, while intelligence chief Bruno Kahl also blamed Moscow for “cyberattacks [that have] no other motive than to cause political uncertainty.”
Rolf Mützenich, the Social Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesman, warned on Monday that Germany should be prepared for “fake stories” from Russia, and more.
—————————————————————————
From : POLITICO / December 13, 2016
Link : http://www.politico.eu/article/germany-considers-forcing-facebook-to-delete-fake-news/
