Image by getty images

By Lilly Maier November 7, 2016

German prosecutors are investigating Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives for failing to react to the onslaught of hate speech on their platform as well as for not deleting posts denying the Holocaust.

European countries like Germany have much stricter laws against hate speech than the United States. German law requires Facebook Germany to delete all known content which can be considered incitement of hatred.

Besides Zuckerberg, porsecutors are investigating Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, European policy director Richard Allan, and Berlin Facebook manager Eva-Maria Krishcieper.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The investigation is taking place in Bavaria and follows a complaint filed by a German technology law firm accusing Facebook of not doing enough to remove violent postings.

Social media sites in Europe have seen a rise of racist and threatening posts during an influx of migrants and refugees into Europe.

This May, the European Union released an online “code of conduct” in conjunction with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft.

The code it aimed at fighting hate speech, racism and xenophobia across Europe and requires the companies to review the “majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech” in less than 24 hours.

But in practice, Facebook users have reported that their requests for the removal of hate speech have been repeatedly ignored.

The criminal complaint lists 438 hateful or inciting posts that were reported throughout the year but not deleted.

Attorney Chan-jo Jun, filed a similar complaint in Hamburg a year ago, but believes that his chances are higher in a Bavarian court.

Facebook said the complaint had no merit. “We are not commenting on the status of a possible investigation, but we can say that the allegations lack merit and there has been no violation of German law by Facebook or its employees,” a company spokesman said.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told an Israeli TV station, “If the companies refuse to meet their responsibility, then there will be consequences.”

Earlier this year, a criminal investigation of Zuckerberg was aborted because the regional court lacked jurisdiction. Facebook’s European operations are based in Ireland.

With Reuters

Lilly Maier is a news intern at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @lillymmaier

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount