Social media networks now face a fine of over $50 million in Germany if reported hate speech is not taken down within 24 hours, or seven days in complicated cases. Phillip Tracy, Tech Writer at The Daily Dot, joins Cheddar to discuss the new laws.
The Network Enforcement Act went into effect in October, but social media networks were given a grace period until January 1st. Facebook has reportedly already hired a team of people in Germany to deal with content deemed as hate speech. The law was met with much criticism over freedom of speech when first presented.
Tracy believes there will be a learning curve when it comes to what is considered hate speech. He doesn't think it's practical right now because of the sheer volume of content on social media platforms.
If you wanted to previously find an image that perfectly matched what you saw in your head online, you had to type in a wordy search inquiry and would get countless results back. Now, that mental snapshot can be crafted in seconds by artificial intelligence and sometimes it’s even better than you could imagine.
