Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the (a) European Commission on whether social media companies should remove illegal hate speech online within 24 hours and (b) German government on its proposals to fine social media companies for failing to remove such speech within 24 hours.

Officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government sit on the Internet sub-group of the EU Commission's High-Level Hate Crime Group, which also includes civil society and industry representation. The Group oversees collaborative work including the agreed 'Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online':

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/hate_speech_code_of_conduct_en.pdf

This includes agreement by industry to remove illegal hate speech online within 24 hours.

This issue has also been discussed at the Ministerial meetings of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council. German officials and ministers have been involved in these discussions.