Network Enforcement Act

The Network Enforcement Act (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, NetzDG; German: Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Rechtsdurchsetzung in sozialen Netzwerken), also known colloquially as the Facebook Act (Facebook-Gesetz), is a German law that was passed in the Bundestag in 2017 that officially aims to combat fake news, hate speech and misinformation online. The Act obliges social media platforms with over 2 million users to remove "clearly illegal" content within 24 hours and all illegal content within 7 days of it being posted, or face a maximum fine of 50 million Euros. The deleted content must be stored for at least 10 weeks afterwards, and platforms must submit transparency reports on dealing with illegal content every six months. It was passed by the Bundestag in June 2017 and took full effect in January 2018. The law has been criticised both locally and internationally by politicians, human rights groups, journalists and academics for incentivising social media platforms to pre-emptively censor valid and lawful expression, and making them the arbiter of what constitutes free expression and curtailing freedom of speech in Germany. An evaluation ordered by the German Ministry of Justice and executed by Berkeley and Cambridge scientists came to the conclusion that the law has led to a "significant improvement in complaints management and public accountability of network providers in dealing with designated illegal content" while specifying a range of tasks to be tackled like ascertainments in wording.