WHILE celebrating the 2013 election victory that gave her a third term as German chancellor, Angela Merkel reached over a colleague’s shoulder and removed a German flag from his hand. A video of that small gesture, meant to declutter an image she knew would soon rocket around the globe, went viral on social media as purported evidence of Merkel’s lack of patriotism — and is now spurring an effort to compel companies like Facebook to rein in hate speech and fake news.

As Merkel campaigns for a fourth term, her government is raising the pressure on Facebook and other social networks to curb the spread of malicious posts. Her party said on Saturday it’s seeking legislation that would require Facebook and its peers to respond to complaints and delete such content within 24 hours or face fines. If passed, the proposal would be the stiffest regulation Facebook faces in any country where it operates.

“Social networks take too long to remove insults before they spiral out of control,” said Stephan Harbarth, a senior lawmaker of Merkel’s CDU party. “There are clear limits to freedom of speech in the real world that aren’t yet applied online and that needs to change. This is about hate posts as well as fake news.”

Harbarth said he would like to see the law enacted before this year’s national election, expected to be held in September. He insists it’s not intended to boost the CDU’s chances in the ballot, but rather to protect Germany’s democratic process against manipulation.

Facebook will get a taste of the growing concern on Wednesday, when lawmakers from Merkel’s party will discuss the spread of “hate and distortion” on social media at a conference in Berlin with the company’s chief lobbyist in Germany, Eva-Maria Kirsch­sieper.

Facebook says it is grappling with ways to counter hate speech and xenophobic content, and that it aims to investigate and act upon flagged posts within 24 hours. The company says it will soon start working with independent fact checkers in Germany to identify fake news and tag such stories with a warning. For Nadine Schoen, a deputy CDU caucus leader, Face­book’s plans are welcome but don’t go far enough. The Menlo Park, California-based company should also support law enforcement by sharing internet addresses of users who post criminal content, she said.

Thomas Oppermann, of the Social Democratic Party, Merkel’s coalition partner, last month told Der Spiegel that the penalties could reach $532,000 and that sites like Facebook should also be required to publish corrections after removing criminal posts. The fines “have to hurt, otherwise they won’t work,” said Volker Kauder, Merkel’s top lieutenant in parliament.

While Facebook had a slow start in Germany as it battled local clone studiVZ, it has in recent years eclipsed its rival, growing from about four million users in the country in 2009 to 28 million last year. It’s now Germany’s third-most popular site, after Google and YouTube, according to researcher SimilarWeb.

Posts on Facebook have helped fuel the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party fiercely critical of Merkel that took off last year after it started attacking the chancellor for her open-door immigration policies. The AfD blankets Facebook with anti-government messages several times a day with headlines like “Take your country back” and images such as one showing her face on a “wanted” poster.

While it’s unclear how much of the buzz accompanying the AfD on social media will translate into actual voter support, Merkel’s campaign is concerned such posts could become a serious threat, according to a party official who asked not to be named discussing strategy. The CDU has three people monitoring social media and plans to add more to counter attacks, the person said.

What’s really needed, though, is stricter control of the kind of vicious attacks that have become commonplace online, according to Heribert Hirte, a CDU lawmaker who advocates dialogue between Christians and Muslims. His social media comments, Hirte says, have sparked hateful replies and threatening posts.

“Hate posts can have a real impact on public sentiment. That’s something we have to counter, and the AfD is helping to spread hate messages,” he said.

—By arrangement with Bloomberg-The Washington Post

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2017