EC, Social Media Companies Unveil Mechanism To Remove Online 'Illegal Hate Speech'
The European Commission along with Facebook, Google's YouTube, Microsoft and Twitter unveiled a code of conduct to fight online hate speech Tuesday. Companies that sign up agree to review -- and possibly remove or “disable access to” -- illegal hate…
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speech within 24 hours of being notified, the EC said in a news release. The companies will try to better work with civil society groups, which can help alert companies to content that could incite violence and hateful conduct, it said. The EC and tech companies share, "together with other platforms and social media companies, a collective responsibility and pride in promoting and facilitating freedom of expression throughout the online world," the release said: They understand "that the spread of illegal hate speech online not only negatively affects the groups or individuals that it targets, it also negatively impacts those who speak out for freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination in our open societies and has a chilling effect on the democratic discourse on online platforms." The EC and tech companies also will regularly assess the public commitments to the code of conduct, including its impact. Regular meetings will take place on how to promote transparency and spur counter and alternative narratives, the release said. But Access Now said in a news release the process to create the code was done "outside an accountable democratic framework" and "exploits unclear liability rules for online companies." It also risks freedom of expression since legal, but controversial content could be deleted, the civil society group said. "The ‘code of conduct’ downgrades the law to a second-class status, behind the ‘leading role’ of private companies that are being asked to arbitrarily implement their terms of service.”