(JNS) Earlier this month, Germany’s Federal Justice Office began the process of fining Twitter, under the country’s Network Enforcement Act, for failing to remove hate speech. The German law requires social-media sites to remove illegal content within seven days, and for the most egregious material, within 24 hours.

The German office stated publicly that hateful material was published on Twitter, “which the authority considers illegal and, despite user complaints, was not deleted or blocked by the provider within the legally stipulated periods.”

Reportedly, Twitter faces a fine as high as ˆ50 (nearly $55 million) in Germany. An email to a Twitter press account auto-replied with an excrement emoji, as Twitter owner Elon Musk has tweeted it would, and it wasn’t immediately clear how to otherwise reach a spokesperson.

In January, a German activist group sued Twitter for hosting content denying the Holocaust, which is a crime in Germany.