Lawsuit against Meta after hate speech in Facebook groups unsuccessful
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) has initially failed with a lawsuit against the US internet giant Meta, which aimed to close down two Facebook groups. The Berlin Regional Court dismissed a corresponding test case, DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch told the German Press Agency. He announced that he would appeal against the ruling and continue to fight for better protection against hate and hate speech in social media before the Berlin Court of Appeal.
The background to this are threats of violence and murder in a public and a private Facebook group with more than 50,000 and around 12,000 members respectively. Resch explained that commercial interests were at the forefront at Meta. He called on Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) to enact legislation against Facebook and other social media.
Judge: "unspeakable fantasies of violence"
According to Resch, he himself and DUH employees have been experiencing massive hostility and insults for years, which have now culminated in calls for violence and fantasies of violence. At the hearing, the court spoke of "unspeakable fantasies of violence".
At the same time, the presiding judge Holger Thiel made it clear from the outset that the lawsuit had little chance of success. The current legal basis was not sufficient for this, Thiel stated the chamber's initial assessment. The so-called Network Enforcement Act only provides for the deletion of individual statements. Closing a group would not be proportionate because it would also restrict the freedom of expression of members who behaved correctly. The Chamber's ruling was not initially available.
At the hearing, Resch and his lawyers referred to the intervention at demonstrations. These could be broken up if individual people did not comply with conditions or committed crimes. They asked the court to apply the "balancing of interests of the right of assembly" to the present case.
More than 300 criminal charges
Resch said that he could hardly be expected, either practically or emotionally, to research every single hate comment, report it to Meta and file criminal charges. Neither reports to Facebook itself nor around 300 criminal charges filed by DUH had stopped the threats.
According to Meta lawyer Tobias Timmann, the proportion of "infringing posts" in the Facebook groups was less than one percent. A Meta spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur on request: hate speech is unacceptable and the company is actively taking action against its dissemination on the Meta platforms. "In this case, we have removed the illegal content that was reported to us."
Hope for the next instance
"It is regrettable that the Berlin district court condemned the massive hate and violent comments, but saw no legal way to ban such forums on Facebook and thus protect all the victims of hate groups," said Resch. He is now hoping that the court of appeal will rule in the next instance.
This is where Green politician Renate Künast achieved a decisive success in November 2022 after years of fighting against vicious abuse on Facebook. According to the ruling, the social network had to give the politician the data of all users who had massively insulted her online.
- Despite Meta's commercial interests being prioritized over hate speech prevention in Facebook groups, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) intends to appeal against the Berlin Regional Court's ruling and continue their advocacy for better protection against hate speech in social media.
- The Berlin district court dismissed DUH's lawsuit, as the current legal basis is insufficient for closing down Facebook groups, despite threats of violence and murder within the groups.
- Meta's lawyer, Tobias Timmann, argued that the proportion of "infringing posts" in the Facebook groups was less than one percent, and the company had removed any reported illegal content.
- Meta's Facebook platforms have strict policies against hate speech, and DUH's efforts to obtain data from Meta for criminal charges have not been successful in stopping the threats and abuse.
Source: www.dpa.com
