Fake News on Facebook

Member of the Bundestag Renate Künast (Green Party) has achieved another legal victory against the Facebook company Meta in the dispute over the removal of false quotes on the internet, as reported by DER SPIEGEL. According to a ruling by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, Meta “must also delete other similar statements” if the platform becomes aware of an infringing post (so far, it usually only deletes the individual offensive post when it has been reported by the affected person).

“It cannot be that I, as an individual affected person, have to make it my life’s mission to search the entire Facebook network for every copy of a defamatory false quote, to report it, and then to have it deleted,” Künast said in 2021 when she filed the lawsuit. “If Facebook is a place where right-wing extremism can organize itself from the ground up, democracy is being destroyed, and misinformation is being spread on a large scale, we cannot allow the company to leave those affected by hate to fend for themselves.”

After the Frankfurt District Court ruled in her favor in 2022, Meta appealed (claiming it only bears liability as a host provider for content specifically reported)—a position now rejected by the Higher Regional Court: It is deemed reasonable to use AI systems to search for similar content.

“Good news for democracy,” writes Sebastian Klein on LinkedIn. “The platforms that make money from our attention could take much more active measures against hate and misinformation. They don’t even need staff for this, as the technologies already exist. Unfortunately, they only do it when forced by courts. Why? Because their business model relies on generating attention through strong emotions and profiting from it. The fact that this harms our society and undermines democracy is often overlooked. Business comes first. So this ruling is all the more gratifying.”

Renate Künast was supported in the case by HateAid..

Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, managing director of HateAid, will also be present at this year’s herCAREER Expo on October 17-18.

We congratulate the successful plaintiff Renate Künast and HateAid!