Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Germany Wants Facebook And Other Social Media Sites To Regulate And Scrutinize Content

Reuters: German domestic spy agency hits out at Silicon Valley

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency accused U.S. tech giants like Facebook (FB.O) on Monday of failing to take enough responsibility for content on their sites, undermining democracy by not distinguishing between fact and opinion.

“Today we are discovering a ‘fifth estate’ that makes claims but up until now does not want to take any social responsibility,” Hans-Georg Maassen told a conference on cybersecurity organized by Germany’s Handelsblatt daily.

“These are huge digital companies that only see themselves as conveyors of information and hide behind the legal privileges enjoyed by platforms because they do not want to take over editorial verification of their content.”

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Update: German spy agency attacks Facebook and others for failing to tackle fake news (The Guardian/AFP).

WNU Editor: The push to regulate and control content on social media is becoming a major issue for many governments in Europe. They do not have control of a medium that is widely used, and they have now woken up on how effective social media is when it comes to disseminating information, news, and opinions. My prediction .... it will only be a question of time before the freedoms and liberties that many enjoy today when it comes to posting content that they believe in will be scrutinized and judged by the owners of the social media platform using government mandated guidelines. Bottom line .... if you do not meet these guidelines .... censorship or the loss of one's account will be the end result.

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