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In a coordinated campaign across 14 states, the German police on Tuesday raided the homes of 36 people accused of hateful postings over social media, including threats, coercion and incitement to racism.
Most of the raids concerned politically motivated right-wing incitement, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office, whose officers conducted home searches and interrogations. But the raids also targeted two people accused of left-wing extremist content, as well as one person accused of making threats or harassment based on someone's sexual orientation.
"The still high incidence of punishable hate posting shows a need for police action," Holger Münch, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said in a statement. "Our free society must not allow a climate of fear, threat, criminal violence and violence either on the street or on the internet."
The raids come as Germans are debating the draft of a new social media law aimed at cracking down on hate speech, a measure that an array of experts said was unconstitutional at a parliamentary hearing on Monday.
The measure, championed by Justice Minister Heiko Maas for passage this month, would fine Facebook, Twitter and other outlets up to $53 million (50 million euros) if they failed to remove hate speech and other forms of illegal content.
The left ladies and gentlemen.
(Score: -1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:37PM (10 children)
If this is what a country has to resort to after importing a large number of muslims then it is time to ban islam. Kick them out. Prevent them entering in the first place
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:39PM (1 child)
Is that classified as a hate speach?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:47PM
Hate speech isn't illegal in every country, do I need to send your free speech hating nigger ass back to Africa
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:47PM
Can someone explain this?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:54PM (3 children)
Go read some history of Germany after WWII. They started banning certain types of speech - including hate speech - soon after the war and have been tinkering with it ever since. It is a self-check to prevent the atrocities that lead up to the war from ever happening again.
Trying to pin this on anyone but the Germans themselves is disingenuous at best.
(Score: 5, Touché) by KiloByte on Sunday June 25 2017, @10:58PM
Well, you're forgetting that Germans have a strong history of banning certain types of speech — ones that are disliked by the government in power — a few years before the war.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @11:27PM
It's a foolish knee-jerk reaction that only proves that they are not principled when it comes to freedom of speech, and would not do anything to prevent such atrocities if a large portion of their population was actually in favor of them and the political climate was just right.
(Score: 5, Informative) by khallow on Monday June 26 2017, @12:38AM
It didn't work then and it won't work the next time such atrocities happen.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday June 26 2017, @08:25AM (2 children)
Reminder: removing SN's AC feature wouldn't be problematic censorship.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @03:27PM
Sure, but isn't that kind of like letting the terrorists win?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @07:32PM
Neither is comment moderation.