New Delhi: Twitter’s journey through stormy seas continues, as the microblogging service could be subject to fines of billions of euros in Germany for failing to remove tweets containing hate speech. According to a report in TechCrunch, German courts are currently hearing over 600 cases related to hate speech on Twitter.
Adding fuel to the fire earlier this week, Germany announced an investigation into “suspected systemic failures under the country’s hate speech law”. ,Also Read: AI Artist Draws Bill Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg, Other Billionaires As World’s Poorest—Check How They Look,
According to Techcrunch, the NetzDG law allows for fines of up to 50 million euros per case. After Musk took over Twitter in October and fired personnel in Germany and the US, the New York Times documented significant spikes in hate speech. ,Also Read: 10 Highest-Paid YouTubers in India in 2023: Check Complete List Here,
Elon Musk informed his employees this week that Twitter, which he paid $44 billion for last year, is now only worth $20 billion. If all 600 German charges against Twitter are successful, the social media giant would have to pay a fine of 30 billion euros, or roughly $33 billion, or 65 percent more than its current market value.
This could indicate that Twitter will file for bankruptcy. The total amount of fines could potentially reach hundreds of millions of dollars, even though they are only theoretical at this point.
According to the TechCrunch article, Germany is initially examining “only a few tweets out of hundreds that have been recorded and compiled into a database.” According to the report, a user who was earlier banned but has recently reactivated his account, wrote some objectionable tweets.
According to TechCrunch, the German government took action after a judicial challenge successfully established that the tweets were illegal and claimed to have found “substantial evidence of errors” in Twitter’s complaint processing procedures.
This could lead to the first fine for a social media business failing to remove illegal content according to the NetzDG.