Germany’s Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) has filed a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that the company failed to adequately tackle illegal content.
According to the National Network Compliance Act, or NetzDG, social media corporations with more than two million registered users in Germany must respond to user reports of banned content and take action on it.
This must be done within 24 hours in the case of “manifestly illegal” content, and within one week if the content is less manifestly contrary to the law.
Illegal content includes hate speech, threats, defamation, and anti-Semitism.
“The Twitter provider is subject to the provisions of the NetzDG. The BfJ has sufficient indications that it has violated the legal legal responsibility to deal with court cases over illegal content and that this is a systemic failure in the handling of the provider’s court cases, which is punishable by a fine,” the BfJ said in a statement.
“Many contents were reported to the BfJ that were published on Twitter, which the authority considers illegal and, despite the judicial cases of the users, have not been removed or blocked through the provider within the legally stipulated deadlines. The offender’s accusation is based on this. “
The content in question, says the BfJ, was published over a 4-month period and involved an individual, with “similar, unjustified and defamatory expressions of opinion. “The call of the user involved has not been made public.
Although the law has not yet imposed fines, the risk of action has been enough to compel corporations to act in the past.
And while Elon Musk has said Twitter will comply with local laws, its content moderation has been decidedly fragile in recent months, with Musk cutting back on the number of workers dealing with content moderation and dealing with hate speech and harassment.
Twitter is also already the subject of a lawsuit in Germany over its content moderation practices, filed through virtual rights crusade organization HateAid and the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS). They say the company failed on six pieces of content marked as anti-Semitism that trivializes or denies the Holocaust. Twitter’s denial of all content, they say, violates its own policies on anti-Semitism.
Meanwhile, the EU reportedly warned Twitter that it wants to rent more content moderation if it wants to comply with the upcoming Digital Services Act, which comes into force next year.
The BfJ says it gives Twitter a chance to respond to its court cases and will review its response. However, if he concludes that the allegations are well-founded, he will ask the Bonn District Court to prosecute. Failure to comply with the rules can result in fines of up to €50 million.
“The BfJ has enough that Twitter has breached its legal responsibility to deal with court cases over illegal content,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said.
“The Internet is not a legal vacuum. Platforms don’t just settle for that when their facilities are misused to spread fraudulent content. “