A Wonderful Way to Fatten- up the Public Treasury- A suggestion

Monday, 20  March 2017

Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas is proposing fines up to 50 million Euros (1 Euro = CAD 1.43,on March 17,2017)  for  social networking sites that fail to swiftly remove illegal content, such as hate speech  or “fake news” that constitutes slander, defamation or libel, in a bill to be put before the German Parliament.

The legislative proposal would require companies to provide a round-the- clock service for users to flag illegal content, which would have to be removed by the site within seven days.

All copies of the content would also have to be deleted and social media companies would need to publish a quarterly report detailing how they have dealt with such material.

I would suggest that Canada can do better than that by

1. including  personal  blogs and social networks;
2. forbidding the publication of items  posted under pseudonyms or from out of the country;
3. reducing  the waiting time for the removal of the offensive materials to one day;
4. fining as well, both the individuals who post the offensive materials and the blogs/ website where they are posted.

Since hate crimes and the false news in question, are crimes against both the ethnic, religious or racial groups and members thereof targeted in the postings, as well as against the people of the country where they live, it is hard to think of a better way to compensate them both. 

This should smarten up recidivists such as Google, Twitter, YouTube and others by hitting their bottom lines and in the process teach them to make an honest living out of social networking.

Just think of  all the worthy things the government can do with the income generated by this penal measure, for the benefit of all Canadians, instead of just for that of  the middle –class with which  the Prime Minister and his Minister of Finance are obsessed.