Germany’s Network Enforcement Act and What It Means for EU Social Media

It was in summer 2017, only a few months before the federal elections, when the German Department of Justice (DoJ) finally got the upper hand in an internal struggle within the German government over how to deal with “hate speech” and “fake news” online. There had been fears rising within political Berlin that foreign forces, such as Russia, could spread “fake news” via social media to meddle in the upcoming elections.