German
lawyers have filed a criminal complaint against Facebook founder and CEO Mark
Zuckerberg over antisemitic speech on the social networking site. There was no
immediate response to the complaint from Zuckerberg.
Germany
has strict laws against hate speech given its experience under Adolf Hitler. It
is illegal to incite hatred and to circulate or display Nazi symbols in Germany
and if Zuckerberg is found guilty on those charges, he could face a fine of up
to $163m (€150m).
A
spokeswoman for the Hamburg prosecutors told Fortune that they are still
examining the merit of the lawyers’ complaint before deciding whether or not to
proceed against Zuckerberg.
“I think Facebook has changed German
society — not for the good,” Bavarian lawyer Chan-jo Jun told Vice News.
“I wanted to find out if the German legal system would prevail against an
American company.”
Jun
has compiled a list of more than 300 Facebook pages and posts that contain
swastikas and other Nazi-related images as well as calls for violence against
the Middle Eastern and North African immigrants who have flooded Germany over
the past year.
Facebook
has removed some of them from the internet, but many others are still up. One
post depicts President Obama wearing a yarmulke and Orthodox Jewish-style side
curls with the label “Nobel Zionism Prize.” An accompanying message
asks: “Why is this man is not sitting in a concentration camp?”
Jun
and Cologne attorney Christian Solmecke moved against Zuckerberg after German
authorities refused to take action against Facebook’s German executives in
2015. Prosecutors said the executives were not responsible for the behaviour of
the California company.
Jun
and Solmecke then filed a complaint targeting a Facebook executive who oversees
the site’s operations in northern, central and eastern Europe. Prosecutors are
now investigating the lawyers’ claims in that case.
Zuckerberg
has been trying to head off any German crackdown with a charm offensive
expressing outrage at the hate speech that litters Facebook. He insisted at a
town hall meeting in Berlin in February that Facebook is struggling mightily
against hate speech.
“Really, our education and learning
more about German culture and German law has led us to change our approach on
that to now include hate speech against migrants as an important part of what
we have no tolerance for on Facebook,” he said.
Zuckerberg
added: “There is still work to do, we want to do that. We hear the message
loud and clear and we are committed to doing better.”
Zuckerberg
was previously caught on tape telling Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would
“work” on the problem when she grilled him about what Facebook was
doing about hate speech.
In
early January Facebook launched its “Initiative for Civil Courage
Online” in Berlin, pledging $1.1m (€1m) to support non-governmental
organisations in their efforts to counter racist and xenophobic posts.
