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France cracks down on illegal Facebook posts

Data released by Facebook this week shows that there's been a meteoric rise in the amount of posts France blocks. The country is also ranked fourth in the world for the number of government requests made for info on users.

France cracks down on illegal Facebook posts
Photo: AFP

The data was part of Facebook’s annual Government Requests Report, which lists the number of demands for information on Facebook users from each country.

In the first half of 2015 France, made 2,520 requests for data from 2,847 different users, as each demand can be for information from several accounts.

However, Facebook supplied the requested information in 42.5 percent of cases, meaning that over half were unjustified in the eyes of the social media giant.

That reflects a steep rise on the same period in 2014, when France made 1,547 requests for information.

The USA was the country that made the most requests for users’ information, with 17,577 applications for data on 26,579 accounts.

The UK made 3,384 requests for info on 4,489 users while in Germany the number was less than France  – 2,344 requests for information on 2,776 users.

Worldwide there were 41, 214 requests for data about Facebook users in the first six months of 2015, an 18 percent rise on the previous year.

Facebook says the vast majority of applications “relate to criminal cases such as robberies and kidnappings” and the social network says it has “strict processes in place to handle these government requests”.

Huge rise in amount of posts France blocks

When it comes to content being blocked in each country, France saw a mammoth rise in the first half of 2015.

In the second half of 2014, France asked for just 13 items of content to be removed because they were judged illegal, and in the six months previous to that it blocked only 22 posts.

But in the first half of 2015 that figure has risen to 295, meaning France was ranked third in the world..

Most of the content France asks to be blocked relates to the crimes of Holocaust denial, denial of crimes against humanity or a new law that has made it a criminal offence to glorify terrorism.

The steep rise in the amount of blocked content in France is believed to be linked to January’s Paris terror attacks and the fact that there were many reports of people taking to social media to express support for the terrorists.

Only India (15,155) and Turkey (4,496) had more illegal content blocked than France over the same period.

These figures don't include the vast amount of posts that Facebook blocks itself with the help of users and without the intervention of states.

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FACEBOOK

Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany

Facebook says it has deleted the accounts, pages and groups linked to virus conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers in Germany who are vocal opponents of government restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany
An anti-vaccination and anti-Covid demo in Berlin on August 28th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

With just 10 days to go before Germany’s parliamentary elections – where the handling of the pandemic by Angela Merkel’s goverment will come under scrutiny – Facebook said it had “removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts” linked to the so-called “Querdenker” or Lateral Thinker movement.

The pages posted “harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence”, the social media giant said in a statement.

It said that the people behind the pages “used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify violating content, primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights.”

The “Querdenker” movement, which is already under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence services, likes to portray itself as the mouthpiece of opponents
of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, organising rallies around the country that have drawn crowds of several thousands.

READ ALSO: Germany’s spy agency to monitor ‘Querdenker’ Covid sceptics

It loosely groups together activists from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. And some of their rallies have descended into violence.

Social media platforms regularly face accusations that they help propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly with regard to the pandemic and vaccines.

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