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Social media websites in Germany could be [in / out] for fines of up to 50 million euros ($54 million) for removing illegal content too [slow / slowly] . The German government has decided to crack [up / down] on the darker side of online content, including hate speech, slander, fake news and [other / others] illegal material. Under the proposed new law, the [likely / likes] of Facebook and Twitter would be given seven days to delete content flagged as illegal, or [incur / concur] a heavy financial [penalty / penal] . Any content deemed to be "clearly [criminal / criminally] " would have to be removed within 24 hours. Germany's justice minister Heiko Maas quoted research which [suggestive / suggested] Twitter deletes only one per cent of the hate speech it is told about by [users / usage] , and Facebook, 39 per cent.

Mr Maas said the new fines and [regulations / regulatory] were necessary due to [heightening / upping] concern over the influence social media is having in shaping [public / private] opinion. He said: "The biggest problem is that the social networks do not take the [complaints / complains] of their own users seriously enough." He added that voluntary efforts to [kick / tackle] the problem were not working, saying: "Too [little / few] comments are deleted, and they're not being deleted [quick / quickly] enough." Mr Maas said all social media companies would be required to set up a [complaints / complaining] team that must be operational 24/7. A digital trade organization [frightened / feared] that removing content within 24 hours from sites that handle more than one billion posts per day was "[utterly / udders] impossible".