German Cabinet approves anti-hate speech bill for social media sites

The bill will also see the definition of criminal hate speech extended on social media sites in Germany.

The German cabinet has approved a bill that will require social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube to report certain hate speech to the police.

According to the bill passed by ministers, internet companies will have to flag far-right propaganda, graphic portrayals of violence, murder or rape threats, and posts indicating that someone is preparing a terrorist attack or distributing child sexual abuse images.