Germany has threatened big shot social media platform Facebook. The chairman of Germany's Social Democrat party has suggested rules that could fine Facebook for up to 500,000 euros. This is with the allegation that Facebook has been doing too little to nothing about spreading of fake news.

It's no news that fake news is all over Facebook; being shared and liked by thousands to millions of people. With this, German officials are taking a "tougher stance" against Facebook and other big social media platforms where fake news are spreading. According to Independent, the officials will discuss the matter after the Christmas break.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas and his ministry are said to be looking if it's possible for the site to be held responsible for any illegal and fake posts that appear on them.

Germany is taking this step as they are approaching their general elections. Based on reports, the officials fear that hate speeches and fake news on social media could affect the upcoming elections.

Syracuse.com reported that Germany has strong laws against speeches that promote racism, defamatory or perhaps indicating violence. Nonetheless, authorities from the country are having a hard time when it comes to anonymous posts on sites such as Facebook.

According to the suggested rule, Facebook should be able to delete these kinds of post within 24 hours. If they fail to do so, they could be fined up to 500,000 euros.

So far, Facebook has only worked with third-party fact checkers like Snopes to check out the validity of stories on their site. Through these fact checkers, fake news could be "disputed." This leads to a warning popping up before someone can read it. The site has also claimed these kinds of news will be "lower in the News Feed."

However, critics of the site are still unconvinced that their method could exactly help solve the issue.