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POSTS BY Amélie Heldt
28 September 2021

Facebook suspends accounts of German Covid-19-deniers

On 16 September 2021, Facebook suspended more than 150 “Pages and Groups operated by individuals associated with the Querdenken movement in Germany” because of “coordinated social harm”. These accounts were, undoubtedly, spreading misinformation about the Covid-19-pandemic, denying the existence of the virus and encouraging other users to resist the government. However, this type of removal has no legal basis other than Facebook’s Community Standards. Hence, this constitutes a great example of how we (still) apply double standards in content moderation and that, from a legal perspective, we need to think beyond traditional categories and expand the horizontal effect doctrine, but not solely to the advantage of the users affected by the removal. Continue reading >>
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30 November 2020
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The Sorrows of Scraping for Science

Access to data is an overall challenge for researchers when investigating social media platforms' content moderation policies and practices. Researchers need empirical evidence to ground their arguments and public interest research. Platforms have not only not providing data, but are, in fact, further restricting access. Both platforms and governments should make an effort to improve on the availability of data for research, and, to this end, clarify the law in this space. Continue reading >>
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10 December 2019

Anachronisms by Law

In an ongoing effort to combat online hate speech, the German Minister of Justice recently announced to examine the re-introduction of section 88a of the German Penal Code. This law sanctioned the ‘anti-constitutional endorsement of crime’ and was only in force during a brief period between 1976 and 1981. It was supposed to counteract the spread of aggressive opinions and calls for violence. While politicians today are struggling with the issue of harmful online speech, one should refrain from re-introducing a law that was not only controversial back then but also ineffective. Apart from that, resurrecting the law in today’s digital world raises numerous questions. Continue reading >>
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25 June 2018

Zensur durch Upload-Filter: Zur umstrittenen EU-Reform des Urheberrechts

Der Rechtsausschuss des EU-Parlaments hat für die EU-Richtlinie über das Urheberrecht im digitalen Binnenmarkt gestimmt. Damit macht er den Weg frei für sogenannte Upload-Filter. Diese sind aufgrund ihres verdachtsunabhängigen und der Veröffentlichung vorgeschalteten Einsatzes höchst umstritten. Continue reading >>