Friday, November 22
Shadow

Syrian refugee vs right-wing German nationalist – BBC Trending

This is the moment a famous Syrian refugee met a right-wing German nationalist.

In October a new law comes into force in Germany that will impose huge fines on social networks if they don’t delete illegal content including hate speech.

Anas Modamani is a refugee from Syria who now lives in Berlin. In August 2015 he was catapulted to notoriety for taking a selfie with Angela Merkel while she was visiting a migrant shelter.

But the picture would come back to haunt him, as it was used to accuse him of attacks in Brussels and Berlin. His famous photograph was cropped and pasted into wanted posters and false news reports.

He decided to take Facebook to court for not doing enough to stop the lies being shared about him, but in March 2017 he lost the case. The court ruled Facebook had taken enough measures to attempt to block defamatory images of him for users in Germany.

He spoke to Goetz Froemming, a federal election candidate for the Alternative for Germany, who say the new law is a threat to freedom of speech.

For more details visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-41042266

Video journalist: Jan Bruck

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