Concerns over online hatespeech have prompted governments to strengthen social media governance. However, claims by policy-makers and political activists regarding the effectiveness and likely consequences of legal regulations remain largely untested. We rely on qualitative interviews and two expert surveys to examine the behavior of public relations professionals in response to online hatespeech when having the option of using the new user-complaint mechanism under the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). Our findings reveal that strategies depend on whether professionals work at public sector institutions, business, or civil society organizations and political parties. Public sector institutions are likely to report to the platform, but not under NetzDG. Civil society organizations are likely to choose content moderation, counterspeech, and other forms of intervention. Businesses deploy a wide range of strategies. In practice, Germany's procedural approach relying on user-complaint mechanisms to deal with online hatespeech is not used by experts as a means to combat online harassment.

中文翻译：

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德国社交媒体治理和打击网络仇恨言论的策略

对网络仇恨言论的担忧促使各国政府加强社交媒体治理。然而，政策制定者和政治活动家关于法律法规的有效性和可能后果的主张在很大程度上仍未得到检验。我们依靠定性访谈和两项专家调查来研究公共关系专业人员在可以选择使用德国网络执法法案 (NetzDG) 下的新用户投诉机制时应对在线仇恨言论的行为。我们的研究结果表明，策略取决于专业人员是否在公共部门机构、企业、民间社会组织和政党工作。公共部门机构可能会向该平台报告，但不会在 NetzDG 下报告。民间社会组织可能会选择内容审核、反言论和其他形式的干预。企业部署了广泛的战略。在实践中，德国依靠用户投诉机制来处理网络仇恨言论的程序方法并没有被专家用来作为打击网络骚扰的手段。