Facebook has partnered with the German Justice Ministry to curb xenophobic and racist posts.
In the wake of the European refugee crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week urged Facebook to "take action against" harmful speech. The company met with Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Monday, and a joint task force was born.
According to Reuters, other social networks and Web providers will join the group to more quickly and identify offending posts.
Facebook did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment. But the company told the BBC it will take "three new steps to counter xenophobia on the [German] platform." One is the aforementioned task force, but Facebook will also partner with German non-profit community group FSM, and launch a "broad campaign" to encourage more civil discourse online.
In general, the First Amendment in the U.S. protects whatever terrible thing you can think to say on the Internet, though Facebook bans content that is "directly harmful." In 2013, amidst concern over content that promoted violence against women, Facebook also pledged to review its policies on hate speech. Countries like Germany and France, though, have stricter rules on offensive comments, banning things like pro-Nazi content.
According to Facebook's most recent transparency report, for example, which covers the second half of 2014, the social network restricted 60 pieces of content in Germany that advocated right-wing extremism and Holocaust denial, which are illegal in Germany.
As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, Facebook has not said it will expand the types of content it removes.