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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