Facebook Against German Hate Speech Laws
It was the 78th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogrom against Jews, and the Berlin restaurant owned by Mr. Feinberg, a 35-year-old Israeli, had been included without his knowledge on a map of the city that a far-right group had published on Facebook.
The social media post listed the names and addresses of local Jewish institutions and Israeli-owned businesses under the banner “Jews Among Us,” in bright yellow Gothic script. Mr. Feinberg soon received anonymous phone calls telling him, “I hate Jews.”
“I have reported things to Facebook at least 20 times,” he explained over coffee at his restaurant in a residential neighborhood in western Berlin. “And 100 percent of the time, they have refused to take it down. Facebook doesn’t do anything.”
Others identified in the map did complain. At first, Facebook did not remove the map, saying it complied with the company’s “community standards,” or guidelines for what it deems within the bounds of free speech.
But within 48 hours, after an outcry on social media, in local newspapers and from German lawmakers, Facebook relented. It deleted the far-right group’s entire page, including the post that had listed the Jewish institutions and businesses across Berlin.
While his complaint may be dismissed, Mr. Jun says the roughly 450 hate speech cases that he has collected, more than half of them aimed at refugees, show that Facebook is not complying with German law. Despite its global size, he insists, the company cannot skirt its local responsibilities.
“I know Facebook wants to be seen as a global giant,” Mr. Jun said. “But there’s no way around it. They have to comply with German law.”
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