Germany’s Federal Office of Justice said
the web giant had created a skewed picture of the extent of violations on its platform.
Facebook said it had complied with its transparency obligations under the law, known as ‘NetzDG’, adding that some aspects of the law “lacked clarity”. Facebook said it reserved the right to appeal the ruling after studying it.
Under Germany’s network transparency law, social media platforms are required to report the number of complaints of illegal content they have received. The charge that Facebook did not report the full extent of the complaints it received could undermine its efforts to burnish its reputation.