Facebook’s battles stretch beyond US borders
‘Stop deleting comment’
1A German court barred Facebook Inc from deleting a post written by one of its users, throwing into question how the social media platform manages freedom of speech in the country.
Facebook blocked the user, identified only as Gabor B., and deleted his post — a comment under a newspaper article that questioned Germany’s practice of aiding the influx of refugees in Europe.
“Germans are getting increasingly stupid,” the user wrote in January. The German government this year started enforcing Europe’s toughest law aimed at reining in hate speech and fake news on social media — threatening to fine the likes of Facebook, Twitter Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube up to €50 million (Dh226 million) if they refuse to delete illegal posts.
24-hour target welcomed
2Myanmar civil society groups welcomed a commitment by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to tackle hate speech within 24 hours as the social media giant fights messages inciting violence, but urged it to deploy more resources in the country.
Zuckerberg said on Tuesday his company would step up efforts to block hate messages in Myanmar as he faced questioning by the US Congress about electoral interference and hate speech on the platform.
In an email, the representatives of several civil society groups in Myanmar hailed the 24-hour timeline as “historic”, but said Facebook had failed to set up an effective mechanism in the country for swifter detection and removal of threatening posts.
No funding
3A representative for Facebook said on Wednesday that the company would stop contributing funds to a campaign against a 2018 statewide ballot measure that would require companies to disclose what personal information from Californians they collect, buy or share.
The statement comes after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg underwent a grilling by 44 lawmakers over the social media giant’s role in the 2016 election and its lax privacy protections.
“We took this step in order to focus our efforts on supporting reasonable privacy measures in California,” Facebook spokeswoman Rochelle Nadhiri said.
Activists jailed
4Courts in Vietnam handed prison sentences to two activists yesterday, as the government widens a crackdown on dissent. A court in the province of Nghe An sentenced Nguyen Viet Dung to seven years in prison for posting “anti-state propaganda” on his Facebook account, police said.
Despite sweeping economic and social reforms in Vietnam, the ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism. It has been stepping up sentencing and arrests of activists and handing them longer jail terms.
Dung, 32, was charged with posting information on his Facebook account last year that distorted the policies of the party and the state and defamed state leaders, the police said.