Facebook, Google, Twitter To Delete Hate Speech In 24 Hours

In a major move against rising online extremism and racism following the refugee crisis, social networking giants Facebook, Twitter and Google have Germany have agreed to delete hate speech from their websites within 24 hours, Reuters reported.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said on Tuesday that the new agreement makes it easier for users and anti-racism groups to report hate speech to specialist teams at the three companies.

"When the limits of free speech are trespassed, when it is about criminal expressions, sedition, incitement to carry out criminal offences that threaten people, such content has to be deleted from the net," Maas said. "And we agree that as a rule this should be possible within 24 hours."

Maas also said that each of the three companies will use internal “specialist teams” to assess reports of hate speech and delete it when appropriate, in accordance with German law, Time reported.

The country has been trying to get social networking sites to crack down on the growing anti-immigrant comments posted online as it struggles to cope with an influx of over 1 million refugees this year.

The announcement follows the recent incident when a group of 15-20 people wearing black clothes and hoods vandalised Facebook’s offices in Hamburg, by smashing glass, throwing paint and spraying "Facebook dislike" on a wall.