When German social-media app Jodel was five months old, its founder Alessio Avellan Borgmeyer noticed a potential problem: while more people were logging on, a small number of users weren’t the community he had hoped to attract. They were posting offensive comments and pressuring other users to submit naked photos. Apple Inc. also saw a problem. The naked photos ... Read More »
Germany’s incoming minister with responsibility for digital policy says she will push social media giants to make users’ information feeds more diverse and timely to avoid creating “echo chambers” for the like-minded. Companies such as Facebook have come under pressure from regulators around the world as evidence has emerged of how the recirculation of a particular selection of news and views on ... Read More »
HIGHLIGHTS German consumer group VZBV sues WhatsApp WhatsApp alleged to transfer data to Facebook without consumer approval Facebook claimed to use WhatsApp data to improve features on its platform WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging app, has been sued by a German consumer group for sharing data with the parent company. The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband) also referred to ... Read More »
HIGHLIGHTS German privacy regulator said Facebook was infringing data protection law Facebook acquired WhatsApp in an effort to reach a younger audience Facebook has its German headquarters in Hamburg Facebook said it would appeal against an order by a German privacy regulator on Tuesday to stop collecting and storing data of German users of its messaging app WhatsApp and to ... Read More »
German police on Wednesday launched nationwide raids targeting social media users who posted racial hatred on Facebook and other online networks. Police swooped on the homes of some 60 suspects across 14 of Germany’s 16 states, the BKA federal crime bureau said, in a crackdown on “verbal radicalism” and related criminal offences. No arrests were made but computer equipment, cameras ... Read More »
Germany’s cartel office has opened an investigation into Facebook for suspected abuse of market power through breaches of data protection law, it said on Wednesday. The watchdog said Facebook’s terms of service regarding its use of user data may abuse its possibly dominant position in the social network market. “For advertising-financed internet services such as Facebook, user data are hugely ... Read More »
Germany, which launched an investigation into social network Facebook last week, is well placed to handle the case, Europe’s antitrust chief said on Monday. The comments by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager came after the German competition office said last week it was investigating Facebook for suspected abuse of market power over breaches of data protection laws. The German cartel ... Read More »
A German court has ruled against an online shopping site’s use of Facebook’s “like” button on Wednesday, dealing a further legal blow to the world’s biggest social network in Germany. The Duesseldorf district court said that retailer Peek & Cloppenburg failed to obtain proper consent before transmitting its users’ computer identities to Facebook, violating Germany’s data protection law and giving ... Read More »
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