As Free Expression Lines Blur Within EU Social Media Giants Vow To Tackle Hate SpeechBy Joseph Jankowski Beyond national laws that criminalize hate speech, there is a need to ensure such activity by Internet users is expeditiously reviewed by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame, the companies and the European Commission said in a joint statement on Tuesday. The companies claim thatit remains a challenge to strike a balancebetween protecting freedom of expression and eliminating hate speech because of the user generated content on their platforms. Romain Dillet of Tech Crunch speculates that the social networks are trying to tackle hate speech to avoid responsibility. Dillet reports: Tech companies probably dont want to be held responsible for hate speech and are now taking a strong stance against hate speech. This is surprising as many social networks have promoted free expression and have refused to delete content or accounts in the past (except when it comes to copyrighted material). But its been a slow and steady change. Twitter has already suspended 125,000 accounts related to ISIS since mid-2015. Facebook already agreed to work with the German government against hateful speech back in September 2015. Google and Twitter later joined Facebook and the German government inDecember 2015. Now, four tech companies are making a formal pledge at the European level against hate speech. Twitters head of public policy for Europe, Karen White, said in astatement that the company remains committed to letting the Tweets flow, but there is a clear distinction between freedom of expression and conduct that incites violence and hate. Within the EU there has been numerous cases of individuals being arrested for hate speech and offensive language, which sparks concern over social networks becomingan arm of the politicalcorrectness police that now patrol the EU. In early May it was reported that YouTuberMarkus Meechan was arrested for a satire video where he trained his girlfriends dog to perform a Nazi salute when he says gas the Jews. When Scottish Police showed up at Meechanshouse they told him he was being arrested for hate crimes over the video. British police arrested a man in February for criticizingSyrian migrants on Facebook while promising that there would zero tolerance For Offence Online. Althoughnetworks like Twitter are saying that there will be an attempt to balance out freeexpression and what they consider to be dangerous, the fact that the lines have already been blurred between the two inside the EU is quite concerning. Image: PRODean Shareski/Flickr The question is, who defines what hate speech is and how do you defend yourself against the accusers? A) Whoevers in bed with big daddy government and b) you dont, you just avoid being accused. This is the way they want it. 