Facebook to crack down on hate speech

BBC reports Facebook is looking to crack down on migrant hate speech in Germany through its social media services. As a private company, Facebook can do what it likes (even if it is at the behest of the German government) and I am all in favour of people not doing or saying vulgar things. Yet the German government seems more interested in stifling any form of debate, and I would much rather try and educate vulgar people than simply shut them out completely. This is the problem with such type of policing: by shutting someone out who has genuine grievances – but woefully incapable of expressing it without relying on vulgarity – you alienate and radicalise them further. For a country so mired by its past it does not seem aware of repeating the same mistakes.