New content moderation rules in Germany: flexibility for community standards and justice by procedure

Published

Apr 25 2022

Written By

Dr. Simon Hembt

Counsel
Germany

Counsel for IP, Copyright, and Industry Regulation – Specialising in Artificial Intelligence, Digital Media, and Games.

Practices

Commercial

Sectors

Countries

Germany

The German Federal Supreme Court confirms in its latest “hate speech”-judgements that platforms have the right to set their own frameworks for user communication in their community standards.

As a result, platforms can prohibit content below the threshold of criminal liability to create a respectful debate and advertising environment for their users. At the same time, user interests must be safeguarded through content moderation by procedure. These seminal judgements set a legal framework applicable to all content sharing platforms.

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