Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

German domestic spy agency hits out at Silicon Valley

Reuters: BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency accused U.S. tech giants like Facebook (FB.O) on Monday of failing to take enough responsibility for content on their sites, undermining democracy by not distinguishing between fact and opinion.

“Today we are discovering a ‘fifth estate’ that makes claims but up until now does not want to take any social responsibility,” Hans-Georg Maassen told a conference on cybersecurity organized by Germany’s Handelsblatt daily.

“These are huge digital companies that only see themselves as conveyors of information and hide behind the legal privileges enjoyed by platforms because they do not want to take over editorial verification of their content.”

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