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EU Threatens Twitter And Facebook With Possible 'Hate Speech' Laws (gizmodo.com) 373

An anonymous reader quotes Gizmodo: On Sunday, the European Commission warned Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and Microsoft that if the companies do not address their hate speech problems, the EU will enact legislation that will force them to do so. In May, those five companies voluntarily signed a code of conduct to fight illegal hate speech on their platforms within 24 hours... But on Sunday, the European Commission revealed that the companies were not complying with this code in a satisfactory manner.

"In practice the companies take longer and do not yet achieve this goal. They only reviewed 40 percent of the recorded cases in less than 24 hours," a Commission official told Reuters. The Commission's report found that YouTube responded to reports of harassment the fastest, and unsurprisingly, Twitter found itself in last place. "If Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft want to convince me and the ministers that the non-legislative approach can work, they will have to act quickly and make a strong effort in the coming months," Jourova told the Financial Times on Sunday.

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EU Threatens Twitter And Facebook With Possible 'Hate Speech' Laws

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  • by ls671 ( 1122017 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:33AM (#53424063) Homepage

    Will this apply to slashdot as well?

    • by Tukz ( 664339 )

      Why would it?

    • by alzoron ( 210577 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:48AM (#53424139) Journal

      Not unless they or whoever owns them now has a presence in an EU territory.

    • Why, does "Fuck off, fucktard. You're such a stupid fuck" qualify as a hate speech?
      • by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @08:21AM (#53424293)

        Why, does "Fuck off, fucktard. You're such a stupid fuck" qualify as a hate speech?

        It doesn't. But there IS stuff on Slashdot that qualifies, although IMHO there's not a lot. But if you browse at -1 as I always do, you'll see it.

        Arguably, the moderation system here already takes care of the problem. Users who aren't logged in won't see much if any hate speech; it almost never makes it higher than +3, and if it does then it drops below that threshold pretty quickly. So they actually have to drill down to find it - it's not immediately obvious. Users who ARE logged in are unlikely to see it if they browse at +1 or higher, (again, unless they drill down), because most of it is posted by AC's whose comments start at 0. People who browse at lower than +1 soon know what to expect and can determine if they want to see that stuff or not.

        Godwin time: Mein Kampf is still available for anyone to read, but it isn't unexpectedly waved in front of anyone's face - people have to seek it out. Hate speech on Slashdot is similar to that. And this kind of speech SHOULDN'T be banned; we need to maintain an ongoing awareness that those attitudes exist and are actively shaping our world. People should be able to easily avoid most of it if they so desire, but hiding it entirely and driving it totally underground is dangerous.

        • I think the EU is afraid that its own citizens can't resist hate speech.

          Anyways, I'm curious why they are being so aggressive about this, yet they don't raise a "great firewall of europe" to block ALL hate speech sites, sites that ignore right to be forgotten, etc. Presumably they'd need to block VPNs and tor as well.

          • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @10:19AM (#53424959) Journal

            I think the EU is afraid that its own citizens can't resist hate speech.

            I can't imagine why. I mean it's not like there's ever been a problem with it before in Eurpope...

            • I can't imagine why. I mean it's not like there's ever been a problem with it before in Eurpope...

              Yes, various Authoritarians — from Franco in the West to Stalin in the East — made elimination of the freedom of speech their top priorities:

              Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

              Joseph Stalin [brainyquote.com]

              The proper reaction to "bad" speech is good speech.

              But if you are willing to justify other nations' not having an equivalent of

              • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @12:22PM (#53425831) Journal

                The proper reaction to "bad" speech is good speech.

                Which didn't work in literally Hitler's case. The arguments about him then banning speech don't really apply: he got to that level of power using speech when opposing speech wasn't banned.

          • by ls671 ( 1122017 )

            Agreed, I view this as a risky path to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The problem with censorship is that it is often manipulated for political agendas.

          • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @11:37AM (#53425473)

            Anyways, I'm curious why they are being so aggressive about this

            Because Brexit, Trump, and the rise of a true conservative backlash in Europe has the liberal establishment there scared as fuck. Turns out that the common people are sick of open-door immigration policies and decades of sucking EU dick. And the left-wing establishment desperately wants to do everything they can to silence this growing popular backlash, by force if necessary.

          • Ya think. How about a game like Hatred?

            Hatred fills your whole body. You’re sick and tired of humanity’s worthless existence. The only thing that matters is your gun and the pure Armageddon that you want to unleash.

            You will go out for a hunt, and you will clear the New York outskirts of all humans with cold blood. You will shoot, you will hurt, you will kill, and you will die. There are no rules, there is no compassion, no mercy, no point in going back. You are the lord of life and death now - and you have full control over the lives of worthless human scum.

            You will also run, you will need to think, you will need to hide and fight back when armed forces come to take you down. You will have no mercy for them, because they dare to stand in your way.

            Only brutality and destruction can cleanse this land. Only a killing spree will make you die spectacularly and go to hell.

            Director: Jarosaw Zieliski; Designers: Jakub Stychno, Arkadiusz Filip Programmers: Piotr Bk,Tomasz Widenka Writer: Herr Warcrimer, Composer: Adam Skorupa

            Of course, shit like that is ok. Shit like that coming from Europeans - just fine. Fucking Hypocrites - don't say something bad on twitter though.

        • 0. ALL posts on /. are created with moderation no lower than 0. That's the logic. So anyone seeing offensive posts before they are moderated down is triggered, and harmed, and has a grievance to be addressed. It can never be undone.

          1. The overwhelming majority of extensive, deliberate hateful speech is, in fact, merely trolling, a joke that is only lost on the extremes. The overwhelming majority or /.ers recognize these for what they are and a) ignore them, as they are insincere and deliberately provocative

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            Hate speech is merely politically incorrect speech which makes value judgements and seeks to change anything.

            Point out the over-representation of Islam in terrorism, the inbreeding, lack of education and over-representation in crime in refugee populations. That's politically incorrect.

            Say "We should no longer accept Muslim refugees as permanent citizens within our nation, because they make our nation worse." ... hey presto, hate speech.

          • "the EU is hurtling down the path of censorship"

            There's censorship and then there's censorship, what some call the start of a slippery slope down that path, others simply call cleaning up the yard so the kids can play safely

          • ... and forge ahead not on a new course but on the course that set America apart and above.

            The "course that set America apart and above" is not the course that America is currently following. Arguably, America's path has been quite different from that set by the Founding Fathers for at least several decades, and perhaps for a couple of centuries or thereabouts.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Actually Slashdot is worse than what the EU is proposing because it has an active filter. If you try to write "n*gger" it won't let you post. Presumably other words are also blocked.

          The EU is saying that if someone complains that the complaint should be investigated within 24 hours, and if the comment is illegal in the territory it was posted from it should be removed. So no active filtering, only reactive removal of illegal material.

        • It doesn't. But there IS stuff on Slashdot that qualifies, although IMHO there's not a lot. But if you browse at -1 as I always do, you'll see it.

          Arguably, the moderation system here already takes care of the problem. Users who aren't logged in won't see much if any hate speech; it almost never makes it higher than +3, and if it does then it drops below that threshold pretty quickly. So they actually have to drill down to find it - it's not immediately obvious. Users who ARE logged in are unlikely to see it if they browse at +1 or higher, (again, unless they drill down), because most of it is posted by AC's whose comments start at 0. People who browse at lower than +1 soon know what to expect and can determine if they want to see that stuff or not.

          Godwin time: Mein Kampf is still available for anyone to read, but it isn't unexpectedly waved in front of anyone's face - people have to seek it out. Hate speech on Slashdot is similar to that. And this kind of speech SHOULDN'T be banned; we need to maintain an ongoing awareness that those attitudes exist and are actively shaping our world. People should be able to easily avoid most of it if they so desire, but hiding it entirely and driving it totally underground is dangerous.

          Spot on, in all respects.

          There's sometimes a hate-speech reply at the very front of every article here, you can sometimes see it when you view an article right after it gets posted. When there are very few replies. There haven't been any recently, but there was a time (recently) when every article had one at the very beginning.

          It's usually a single-line message "gay faggots" or "gay n*ggers" or about cows. "You are all cows. Cows go moo". That sort of thing.

          (There hasn't been any recently, so perhaps it was

    • The "-1" moderation is not enough?
  • Strong effort (Score:5, Informative)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:39AM (#53424099) Homepage Journal
    Sounds like the mega-companies need to step up their bribery efforts. I mean "donation" efforts.
    • by samoht ( 101985 )

      Curious what you're implying here. Are you saying that the companies mentioned are able to influence EU politics with political donations? Do you have any info on how?

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      If you hadn't noticed, the EU is fairly well shielded from that kind of influence. Look at EU consumer and data protection laws. They were clearly not written by corporations.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:41AM (#53424109)

    "Kill all white people" are ok, because fuck white people. That is perfectly acceptable statements on Twitter and are not considered racist, but everyone else demands that you bow down to their bullshit.

    also:
    Twitter User Replaces Word 'White' With 'Black,' Gets Banned
    https://www.informationliberat... [informatio...ration.com]

    • What is considered "hate" speech is what gets the most outrage. I'm not saying it is right or wrong- but you won't find as many people "outraged" by racism against whites so it doesn't get the same motivation to censor.

      Call a white person a "honky" or a "cracker" and they're more likely to be amused than outraged. Same thing happens if you post a thread saying "kill the whitey". The sentiment is probably just as bad but the outrage is less (and probably justifiably less since white people DON'T have a hi

    • Another scientific study using all of two tweets.
    • by samoht ( 101985 )
      Your link doesn't provide any information on whether or not "Kill all white people" would be OK on Twitter, as that is not the statement made by either of the Twitter accounts quoted.

      We would have to look at the past post history of both accounts to determine what went on here on Twitter.

      The thing is that historically black people have been oppressed over the past several hundred years by white people through the process of colonisation, slavery, lack of human rights, and sadly this archaic attitude s
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Look more carefully at your link.

      The original comment is in English, probably posted in the US since it's about Trump. Such comments are allowed for US accounts.

      The account that was banned is... German? Anyway, it's not English. So different local rules. In some European countries racially motivated hate speech is illegal.

      It could also just be a mistake on Twitter's part, or simply photoshopped. In any case, it clearly needs a bit more investigation (which is difficult to do because, as usual, all we have a

    • This was the first thing I thought about when I saw the title and figured that since this is a site driven by social involvement, I would see plenty of SJWs praising this decision. Fortunately my sanity is kept intact and Slashdot has proven the community hosts people with a clue.

      What I want to know is whether or not the focus is on racist commentary or the EU focus itself is racist, against white people?

      How long did the plethora of #BlackLivesMatters posts inspiring the literal death of white people s
  • Translation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by goose-incarnated ( 1145029 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:43AM (#53424121) Journal
    Translation: "If you do not censor anti-government statement, we will censor you".
    • Translation: "If you do not censor anti-government statement, we will censor you".

      The best way to make people ignore a good point (e.g. about censorship) is to engage in hysterical lunacy.

      Various European countries have had hate speech laws on the books for ages. I'll bet you can't point to a single incident ever where it's been used to censor anti-government statements.

      The thing is, if you open with clearly false fantasies, people will quite rightly dismiss you as an idiot (as opposed to here where your us

  • by DatbeDank ( 4580343 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:45AM (#53424131)

    If these companies even tried to end "hate speech" or whatever nebulous crime where a specific group of pigs are more equal than another group of pigs, we will see the end of these platforms and companies full sail.

    I personally feel that Twitter will be first. They will probably ban Donald Trump's twitter account for some pointless reason. After a day or two of silence, he'll re-emerge on a platform like Gab and not be encumbered by these stupid rules. The second Twitter fractures like this will be their death.

    Looking forward to see what the future holds.

    • If these companies even tried to end "hate speech" or whatever nebulous crime where a specific group of pigs are more equal than another group of pigs, we will see the end of these platforms and companies full sail.

      Banning trolls will hurt their business, how? As an employer, I'm MORE likely to advertise on a platform that wasn't full of screaming, stupid Trump people. Those are not people that I want to advertise to, anyway.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Yet for someone in marketing a nazi euro is as good as an euro from a card carrying "better rapist than racist" suicidal maniac.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Note that the requirement is not for the company to actively fight hate speech, it is for the company to investigate potentially illegal material within 24 hours.

  • New Year Eve is coming again and this time Merkel doesn't want facebook breaking press silence about some migrants having good fun with local ladies in Cologne.
    • Good one, I actually snorted.

  • we must destroy it!

  • by Zombie Ryushu ( 803103 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @10:24AM (#53424983)

    Freedom of Speech matters more. It also is the key to fighting racism with anti-racism. The door swings both ways. Someone can post horrible racist shit to people, and then ten people can post about what a douchebag the racist is, and make him look like a shithead.

    Censoring racist speech helps racism, it really does, because it hides racist attitudes in a place where it can fester and become worse. Don't confuse racism with White Supremacy, or Christian Supremacy. There are many non-white racist out there. ISIS, Al-Queda, and other terrorists are racists. They are not racists in the same way that the KKK is racist, but they are racist.

    It is a little known fact that ISIS and Al-Queda have executed African Blacks and Indians, and untold numbers of Persians because they were not of the same Ethnicity as Saudi Arabs. These groups are as racist, if not worse than the KKK, or the various racist Neo-Nazi militia groups in the USA.

    The hate speech laws in Germany and other parts of the EU, are empowering groups like the Golden Dawn, because people on the Secular left have been conditioned to see Racism in the Prism of White Supremacy only, and while yes that still exists, the secular left is seen as a defender of the Right wing Saudi-Arab supremacist ideology these hate groups present. I still don't think the answer to fighting hate is more hate. I don't think the White Supremacist right wing Demagogues is a way to save western civilization from destruction.

    I think that the way to stop this cycle of madness we are trapped in is to expose the lunatics on both sides for the sick madmen they are. If an individual person is trying to make everyone's life miserable, that person should become the object of everyone's ire.

    • > Don't confuse racism with White Supremacy, or Christian Supremacy. There are many non-white racist out there

      Hell, this election on national TV they would say "Donald Trump isn't racist, but only racists vote for Donald Trump", re-enforcing the problem.

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