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“The providers of social networks are responsible when their platforms are misused to spread hate crime or illegal false news,” German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement. The proposed law would apply only within German borders. But Maas said Wednesday he would press for similar measures across the European Union. A number of European countries have also sought to counter the fake-news scourge. The Czech Republic recently inaugurated a special unit charged with denouncing false reports. Should the German measure become law, however, experts say it would amount to the boldest step yet by a major Western nation to control social-media content. Depending on how obviously false or illegal a post is, companies would have as little as 24 hours to remove it.

In addition to fake news and hate speech, the draft bill would target posts seen as inciting terrorism or spreading child pornography. Officials have cited a surge of hate speech across the Internet as a major factor behind the rise of far-right violence in Germany, including arson attacks at refugee centers and assaults on police officers.

One of the companies most affected by the bill is Facebook, which has sought to sidestep such laws by taking voluntary measures to curb the spread of fake news. The company echoed concerns that the bill would wrongly foist upon corporations a level of decision-making on the legality of content that should instead reside with German courts.

Rather than setting a new standard, officials also say they are simply forcing social-media outlets to comply with existing laws governing hate speech and incitement in Germany. Incitement and defamation laws here are far broader than in the United States; for instance, laws on the books forbid defaming German leaders and make denial of the Holocaust a crime.

If you're an advertiser, there's a lot to think about here, especially the integrations that companies like Netflix are quietly selling to defray the cost of producing jaw-droppingly expensive fare like House of Cards. With reality on the rocks and scripted shows in a constant battle for the best teleplay, it's worth hitching your wagon to the right star.

I said a while back that linear cable would never sell premium inventory programmatically; I'm sticking with that. What's changed is linear cable likely will be unrecognizable in 10 years—even HBO is decoupling its highly prized service from a traditional cable sub

TV subscriptions are getting sold differently as consumers express their displeasure with the ever-pricier cable subscription model. That means more and more inventory is delivered in apps and through browsers. And that means programmatic sales, for sure.

consensus seems to be that it leaves advertisers scrambling to move money from linear cable to digital. That gets characterized without fail as a vote of no confidence in network programming, but it's really not; it's a vote of no confidence in the cable industry.