Germany plans to fine social sites if they don't remove hate speech

A logo of Twitter is pictured next to the logo of Facebook in this September 23, 2014 illustration photo in Sarajevo. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Justice Minister on Tuesday put forward a new draft law calling for social networks like Facebook to remove slanderous or threatening online postings quickly or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($53.15 million).

"This (draft law) sets out binding standards for the way operators of social networks deal with complaints and obliges them to delete criminal content," Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement announcing the plans.