Social media companies Facebook , Twitter and Google have greatly accelerated their removals of online hate speech, reviewing over two thirds of complaints within 24 hours, new EU figures show.
The European Union has piled pressure on social media firms to increase their efforts to fight the proliferation of extremist content and hate speech on their platforms, even threatening them with legislation.
Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - owned by Google - signed a code of conduct with the EU in May 2016 to review most complaints within a 24-hour timeframe.
The companies managed to meet that target in 81 per cent of cases, the figures show, compared with 51 per cent in May 2017.
EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova has said previously she does not want to see a removal rate of 100 percent as that could impinge on free speech.
Of the hate speech flagged to the companies, almost half of it was found on Facebook, the figures show, while 24 per cent was on YouTube and 26 per cent on Twitter.
The most common ground for hatred identified by the Commission was ethnic origins, followed by anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia, including expressions of hatred against migrants and refugees.
