Social Media Violence

Austrian Green Party politician Sigrid Maurer - herself a victim of vicious insults on the internet - was to stand trial for defamation because she had made the obscene messages to her public via Twitter. Now the trial is over.

As reported by ORF, among others, a landlord has withdrawn his private accusation against the politician "in its entirety". The judge then formally acquitted Maurer. However, the acquittal will only become legally binding when the landlords lawyer "officially withdraws his appeal with a written statement", according to the spokeswoman. If the landlord waives further legal remedies, he will have to bear the costs of the proceedings.

In an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, over 210 scientists, around 10% of whom are employed by foundations that are run by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, have urged the Facebook CEO to "consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people or groups of people, especially in our current climate that is grappling with racial injustice". In the letter, the scientists specifically call out postings of Donald Trump that should be subject to Facebooks own community standards.