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The silhouette of Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., is seen during the Oculus Connect 4 product launch event in San Jose, California, on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.
Germany started enforcing on Monday a controversial hate speech law that carries hefty fines for social media companies that fail to quickly remove objectionable content.
The three-month grace period fora law passed in June ended Monday, officially granting internet companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube-parent Google just a 24-hour window to remove offending posts.
The law carries fines of up to $60 million if companies fail to remove posts that are “obviously illegal” in that 24 hours. (It grants a week to consider more ambiguous cases.)
The Network Enforcement Act, colloquially referred to as the “Facebook law,” also includes defamatory posts and incitements of violence.