European Parliament on Wednesday voted to impose fines on companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter for up to 4% of revenues if they consistently failed to remove extremist content within one hour of the authorities’ request.
These measures have been further highlighted since the live broadcast on Facebook of an armed man, killing 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March.
The parliament voted by 308 votes to 204, with 70 abstentions to support the proposal to address the misuse of online hosting services.
“Companies that consistently fails to comply with the law may face penalty of up to 4% of their global revenues.”
The new European Parliament to elect from May 23 to 26, will finalize the text of the law in negotiations with the European Commission and representatives of EU governments, process likely to take several months.