Facebook-Germany to test “fake news” filter ahead of federal election

In the coming weeks, German users of Facebook will be able to report a story as “fake” to an independent fact-checking organization which may tag it as “disputed,” as a warning to users. The network plans to apply this filtering system in the run-up to Germany’s federal election in September. Facebook is concerned about a new law proposed in Germany to levy a €500,000 ($523,320) fine for every single piece of misinformation published and not removed by the network within 24 hours.

Germany is the first country after the US where "fake news" will be tagged by one of the social media. DEBKAfile’s cyber experts report that Facebook’s decision fuels the controversy over the boundary between curtailing free expression and censorship by governments or private political and commercial interests for the manipulation of news coverage. The dispute over the fairness of US media coverage of Donald Trump’s election campaign and victory is still unresolved.