German here. Facebook gave a private company (Bertelsmann/Arvato) that works directly for the government free reign to delete/censor as they see fit.
The laws regarding hate speech are so blurry that it practically gives them permission to remove anything they want and that's exactly what they do. They don't only delete content that is strictly against the law, but also content that is government critical, because it "incites public unrest".
They also remove content that promotes other political parties.
German here is well. Facebook agreed to remove certain comments. Facebook (and not the government!) contracted that work to Arvato and defines the rules under which they operate. This happens not because some laws are enforced but because Facebook agreed to do so (how volountary this is is of course up for debate).
Please add citations for the following statements, preferably with example posts (just so that everyone can decide for themselves whether that still falls under "just being critical of policy")
> content that is government critical
> content that promotes other political parties
One example is the German Anonymous channel. It was obviously fake, anti immigration and promoted the AFD (right wing party), but none of that is against the law. It had a ton of followers (I think in the six digits) and was removed just like that.
Interesting. So possibly even the same tool the article mentions, but different rules/config/people setup with access then for China.
Also interesting they have a private company working directly for the government. I figured in those cases someone from the German gov would have to mail or fax a letter to Facebook for every individual request, sorta like how DMCA works. Super spooky sounding they'd just outsource it to another company. Does sound it like's ripe for abuse then since you mention censoring content promoting other political parties. Seems like once the tool is setup, Facebook is then no longer directly involved beyond that point.
On another note, I am super surprised how many political parties Germany has compared to here in America. Seems like more choices, the better.
That company does not work directly for the government but is contracted by Facebook directly.
As far as I'm aware that team actively monitors content and doesn't need to have an explicit request to remove something.
I also have never seen an example that is just critical of the governing parties which was supposedly removed (every single example I saw was of the type "hang chancellor Merkel"). My Facebook feed is full of people promoting opposition parties from the complete political spectrum.
One example is the German Anonymous channel. It was obviously fake, anti immigration and promoted the AFD (right wing party), but none of that is against the law. It had a ton of followers (I think in the six digits) and was removed just like that.
In most cases that's true, but we have the same problem as the US: It's the same two parties that keep winning elections (CDU and SPD) and nowadays they're more like one party, because they got used to running things together.
Their methods of fighting upcoming parties are borderline illegal and sometimes clearly illegal (rigged votes), but nobody cares. They twist some words, give stupid excuses and the issues are not being looked into any further.
The laws regarding hate speech are so blurry that it practically gives them permission to remove anything they want and that's exactly what they do. They don't only delete content that is strictly against the law, but also content that is government critical, because it "incites public unrest".
They also remove content that promotes other political parties.