Germany urges Facebook to remove racist posts

Germany has asked Facebook to remove "racist" anti-migrant posts from its website and apps amid a spate of violent anti-migrant protests in the country, the Telegraph reported.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas has written to Facebook to demand an urgent review of its policy over hate messages.

"Photos of certain body parts are automatically deleted because of moral concerns, yet racist and xenophobic statements aren't immediately removed," Maas wrote.

The anti-migrant protests have seen several refugee shelters torched in arson attacks and more than 30 police officers injured.

"There must be no mistaken tolerance for users who offensively preach xenophobia and racism," Maas wrote.

He said he had decided to take action after numerous German Facebook users complained to the ministry that xenophobic posts were not deleted even after they were flagged as inappropriate.

"Such statements regularly amount to criminal offences, in particular the incitement of hatred, and may amount to public provocation to commit crimes," the minister wrote.

He requested the company to send a senior representative for talks at the ministry on September 14.

Facebook has readily agreed to the talks and issued a statement condemning xenophobic posts.

"Facebook is no place for racism. Such content clearly violates our community standards and we would urge people not to try and use our platform to distribute hate speech," the company was reported as saying in a statement.