FACEBOOK INC! Facebook begins Europe-wide campaign against extremist posts

Facebook Inc (FB.O) started a Europe-wide effort on Monday to thwart extremist places on social networking, after German politicians in particular raised worries of a rise in xenophobic remarks linked to an inflow of refugees.

The U.S.-based group established its “Initiative for Civil Courage Online” in Berlin, vowing over 1 million euros (1 million pounds) to support non-governmental organisations in their attempts to counter racist and xenophobic posts.

On Friday, the company said it’d hired a component of the publisher Bertelsmann to track and delete racist posts on its stage in Germany.In November, prosecutors in Hamburg started an investigation into Facebook on feeling of not doing enough to stop the dissemination of hate speech.

Top German politicians and celebs have expressed concern regarding the growth of anti-foreigner opinions on Facebook along with other social media as the nation struggles to deal having a tide of new migrants that amounted to 1.1 million last year alone.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has encouraged Facebook to do more, as well as the Justice Ministry set up a task force with Facebook along with other social networks and Internet service providers together with the goal of taking them down and identifying criminal places more fast.