Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page is an open book and doesn't lack his smiling face and his happy family. He is known to post a lot about his personal life, especially now that he is a father. But in all these happy moments, a cloud of gloom hands above his head.
Recently, Zuckerberg, together with COO Sheryl Sandberg and European heads Martin Ott, Richard Allan and Gareth Lambe, faced scrutiny for violating Germany's national hate speech law. According to CNN Money, lawyer Chan-jo Jun accused the company Facebook failed to bring down posts that allegedly promoted "hate or violence." Among those the lawyer pointed were its alleged denial of the holocaust and "expressing support for terror groups and calling for violence."
UPI meanwhile said that Zuckerberg's company failed to bring down the post - all 438 of them - despite "repeated requests" from users. Jun added that tolerating hate speech is prohibited in Germany; their violation, alongside the non-removal of the hate posts, prompted German prosecutors to take legal action against Zuckerberg and company.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that he will pursue to file charges against Zuckerberg's company if they fail to discuss the hate speech issue by March. Mass also downed Facebook, Google and micro-blogging site Twitter for being "too few and too slow" in their effort to delete the unwanted content.
In defense to Jun's accusations, Zuckerberg, through a Facebook statement denied that "there have been no violations of German law" since there is no place for hate on Facebook. It also added that the allegations "lack merit" and that Facebook is one of many names that is on the forefront of fighting hate speech while at the same time, "foster counterspeech."
Aside from being the sixth richest man in the world, Zuckerberg is also known for his philanthropic work. Recently, he and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, invested $3billion dollars in creating a research lab called Biohub. It will partner with other universities to come up with radical breakthroughs in fighting diseases through the use of "computer technology."
