EU lawmakers vote against YouTube hate speech content

Video- sharing platforms such as Google’s YouTube and Vimeo will have to take measures to protect citizens from content containing hate speech and incitement to violence under measures voted by EU lawmakers on Tuesday.

The proliferation of hate speech and fake news on social media has led to companies coming under increased pressure to take it down quickly, while Internet campaigners have warned an excessive crackdown could endanger freedom of speech.

Members of the culture committee in the European Parliament voted on a legislative proposal that covers everything from 30 percent quotas for European works on video streaming websites such as Netflix to advertising times on TV to combating hate speech.

The lawmakers approved an amendment that would define video- sharing platforms as services or a “dissociable section of a wider service” that “play a significant role in providing programs and user- generated videos to the general public, in order to inform, entertain or educate,” which could include social media networks including Facebook and Twitter that also carry videos.

“Tackling hate speech on social media is important, but the CULT [ culture] committee should not jump the gun by adopting a far- reaching definition of video sharing platforms without any proper impact assessment,” said Marietje Schaake, a member of the Liberals group of the parliament.