Germany’s Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection has drafted a law that could impose a hefty fine on social media companies such as Facebook Inc. for failing to remove illegal content quickly enough.

Ministry leader Heiko Maas (pictured) announced the proposed law during a press conference today, where he said that social media platforms must do more to tackle hate speech, fake news and other harmful content. Maas suggested a fine of up to €50 million ($53.2 million) for companies that do not remove “clearly criminal” content within just 24 hours. Maas also wants less obvious criminal content to be investigated and removed within seven days.

Maas’ proposed law follows a recent study by Jugendshutz, a government-sponsored youth advocacy group, that showed Facebook deletes 39 percent of illegal content reported by users, while Twitter Inc. deletes only 1 percent. The report noted that the removals rarely happened within 24 hours, which Maas said is “not sufficient.” Maas pointed to YouTube as proof that the strict requirements of the proposed law are reasonable, as the same report from Jugendshutz showed that YouTube removes 90 percent of content reported by users, 82 percent of which occurs within 24 hours.

“Therefore, it is now clear that we must further increase the pressure on social networks,” Maas said in a statement. “We need legal regulations to make companies even more obligated to eradicate criminal offenses.”

Germany has strict laws regarding illegal speech compared with the U.S., and many of these laws were drafted in the post-World War II era to combat Nazism. For example, according to German law, it is illegal to display Nazi symbols such as the Nazi flag or the SS emblem unless they are for educational purposes or for historical accuracy, such as in film for theater.

Twitter has not commented on the proposed law, but Facebook said it will examine the recommended regulations.

“We have clear rules against hate speech and work hard to keep it off our platform,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “We are committed to working with the government and our partners to address this societal issue. By the end of the year over 700 people will be working on content review for Facebook in Berlin.”

Facebook already agreed to work with German officials earlier this year, when it launched a program the combat fake news in the country ahead of its upcoming elections.

Photo: photothek / Thomas Köhler