Germany

A TOP German court ruled this week that Facebook acted illegally in taking down racist posts and blocking the account of their author because it failed to inform the user or give a reason for shutting them down.

This judgment by the Federal Court of Justice complicates a debate over toxic discourse on social networks as Germany girds for a general election in September. It is all the more striking because the comments made by the unnamed plaintiff violated Facebook’s community standards governing so-called hate speech, which is banned under German law if it threatens the peace or incites violence against minority groups.