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EuroNews (18 January 2018)

The European Union is making progress against illegal online hate speech. That’s according to a new evaluation of the European Commission’s code of conduct. 

The code applies to IT companies and guides them on monitoring and removing racist, homophobic or other hateful speech. 

“To have 70 percent of the contributions taken down,” Věra Jourová, EU commissioner for justice, told euronews in an exclusive interview, “I think its a good result. Also the duration of the time IT companies need for it. Because we have set a deadline of 24 hours and they do it in 80 percent of the cases”.

For now the code is voluntary, unlike some member states such as Germany, where companies can be fined or punished if they allow hateful content on their sites. 

At the moment, IT companies are helping states reign in online hate speech. That could change unless laws are put in place. 

“The second threat which I see, you know, the IT sector and the owners, they are people from our value circle,” Jourová said. “The day when Facebook will be sold to someone outside of the circle, it will be a problem for our civilazation”.