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Germany plans to extend internet censorship to ban users it does not like from social media
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17th April 2023
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| See article from thelocal.com |
According to the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), tech companies themselves are responsible for deleting hate speech on social media in Germany, and face up to 50 million euro in fines if they don't. But it's left to their own discretion whether or not
they block the often-anonymous users behind it. Now Germany's coalition government wants to extend censorship controls of online content that the government does not like, both by blocking users who spread censorable speech through a court order, and
forcing social media companies to reveal the person or group behind a perpetrator's profile. The length of any account block would have to be proportionate and regard serious violations -- yet it would be left to the respective court to decide what
exactly that means. An account holder must first be informed that their account could be blocked -- and have the chance to comment on the incident. |
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Germany fines Telegram for not complying with censorship requirements
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23rd October 2022
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| See article from reclaimthenet.org |
Germany has fined the messaging app Telegram $5 million for refusing to comply with German censorship orders. The Federal Office of Justice claimed that the messaging platform has refused to create a way for users to report illegal content or
established a physical office where complaints can be filed, as required by German laws governing social media platforms. German authorities added that their attempts to contact Telegram executives in the United Arab Emirates have failed. Telegram
can appeal the fine. |
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Google and Meta win a complaint against Germany's internet censorship law
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| 4th March 2022
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| See article from reclaimthenet.org |
A German court has ruled against the country's hate speech law, saying it is illegal to share innocent users' data with law enforcement. In 2018, Germany passed a controversial law requiring social media companies to remove criminal content and report
it to law enforcement. Last May, the German parliament amended the law, passing even stricter and wider regulations for social media companies. The expanded version of the law took effect in February. Google, Meta, and Twitter filed legal
complaints against the law in January 2022. In its complaint, Twitter argued that: We are concerned that the law provides for a significant encroachment on citizens' fundamental rights.In particular, we are concerned
that the obligation to proactively share user data with law enforcement forces private companies into the role of prosecutors by reporting users to law enforcement even when there is no illegal behavior.
On March 1, Cologne's
administrative court ruled on Meta's and Google's complaint. The court argued the online hate-speech law violated EU law because it allowed users' data to be shared with law enforcement even before it is determined if a crime has been committed. The decision can be appealed at a higher court.
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Twitter responds to German porn age verification requirements by totally blocking all Germans from adult content that has been flagged by a state internet censor
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13th February 2022
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| See article from wired.com |
Twitter has been blocking the profiles of adult content creators in Germany since late 2020, with at least 60 accounts affected to date. The move comes in response to a series of legal orders by German regulators that have ruled that online
pornography should not be visible to children and must be hidden behind age-verification systems. As Twitter doesn't have an age-verification system in place, it has responded to legal demands by outright blocking the selected accounts for anyone
in Germany. The German approach to selecting accounts to ban seems scattergun. There are thousands of Twitter accounts that post adult content, and those the internet censors has reported to Twitter appear to have large followings or are subject
to individual complaints. Anyone trying to view one of the blocked accounts in Germany sees a message saying it has been withheld in Germany in response to a legal demand. The exact number of accounts blocked in this way is unknown. One
pornographic account displaying this message has more than 700,000 followers. The policy of totally blocking all German users may encourage a large scale take up of VPNs so that users can continue to view their favourite accounts. Of course
Twitter could itself block access via well known VPNs but it seems likely that this would cause widespread disruption to worldwide users living in repressive countries that try to block Twitter entirely. |
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German internet censors get wound up by the encrypted messaging app Telegram
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27th January 2022
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| See article from iamexpat.de
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The German government has recently made it clear that it will impose fines and sanctions on the social messaging app Telegram if it continues to ignore the authorities' requests. In April 2021, the federal government sent two letters to the social
media company, demanding that Telegram appoints a contact person in Germany and make it easier for users to report illicit content. More recently, the German police sent multiple requests to Telegram, to try and get them to comply with the NetzDG
censorship law. Telegram has yet to respond to these requests. Now, politicians in Berlin have made it clear that they plan to get tough with Telegram. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said: Telegram, like everybody else, has to adhere to
our laws. Technology experts have warned that banning Telegram would be difficult, both technically and constitutionally. On the one hand we are celebrating Telegram's lack of censorship and its importance for democratic movements in Belarus and
Iran, and on the other, we are then disabling the service here, said digital journalist Markus Reuter. |
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The German government considers banning Telegram to silence opposition to covid restrictions
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15th January 2022
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| See article from reclaimthenet.org |
The German government are considering banning the encrypted Telegram messaging app that has been used by conservative groups and groups opposing Covid restrictions. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that Telegram could be banned if it continues
being used by groups opposing Covid measures to organize. She told Die Zeit weekly: We cannot rule this out. A shutdown would be grave and clearly a last resort. All other options must be exhausted first.
Faeser said that Germany was discussing with other European Union Members how to regulate Telegram, noting: As a German nation-state, we cannot do it alone. Telegram is a messaging app with
social media-like features. Through groups and channels with an unlimited number of members and subscribers, messages, news, and other information can be shared among like-minded people. The private messages can be protected from snooping through
end-to-end-encryption, although this is not the default. |
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German internet censors get legal backing to block Cyprus based porn sites that do not require age verification
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30th November 2021
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| See article from seattletimes.com |
A German court has ruled that authorities are justified in banning three unnamed porn websites based in Cyprus from operating in Germany due to rules requiring age verification. The Duesseldorf administrative court said it had rejected complaints by
the sites' two unnamed operators, who argued that the age verification regulations in Germany didn't apply to them because they were based in another European Union country. The court said the decision taken by the Media Authority of North
Rhine-Westphalia state to ban the sites in Germany didn't breach national, European or international law. The names of the sites weren't released by the court. The ruling can be appealed. |
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Google has announced legal action against the German government for demanding that social media companies hand over person details of users accused of hate speech
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| 28th July 2021
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| See article
from computing.co.uk |
Google has announced that it was taking legal action over Germany's expanded hate-speech legislation which took effect in April this year. In a blog post Google said that a new provision of Germany's Network Enforcement Act ('NetzDG') violates the
right to privacy of its users. The provision requires social media platforms to share with law enforcement personal details of those sharing content suspected to be hateful. Germany's NetzDG law came into effect in early 2018, making social
networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter responsible for monitoring and removing hate content from their platforms. It also required digital platforms to publish regular reports on their compliance. In May 2021, the country's parliament
passed legislation to include new provisions in the law to broaden its application, including sharing details of those judged to have shared hate-filled content with the Federal police, a move that was criticised as being heavy-handed by opposition
parties and the European Commission, as well as by social media companies themselves. Sabine Frank, YouTube's regional head of public policy, wrote in the blog post: In our opinion, this massive interference
with the rights of our users is not only in conflict with data protection, but also with the German constitution and European law. Google believes that such massive sharing of users' personal data with law enforcement is only
possible after a detailed examination by a court and a judicial confirmation. For us, the protection of our users' data is a central concern. We have therefore decided to have the relevant obligations of the legislative package
examined by the Cologne Administrative Court as part of a declaratory action.
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The authorities are trying to block notable porn sites
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2nd July 2021
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| See German language
article from spiegel.de |
The German media censor, the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media, wants to force the hosting provider of the porn website xHamster to lock out German users. A year ago, the State Agency for Media in North Rhine-Westphalia began to
issue porn portals such as PornHub with an ultimatum: Either they establish age verification systems or there is a threat of network blocking. Several proceedings are currently pending at the Dusseldorf Administrative Court are being contested by
porn companies who argue that they label their websites according to an international standard designed to make it easy for parents to block offers on their children's devices. However, German legislation takes the opposite approach: Portals that are
harmful to minors should only be accessible if the users are proved to be of legal age. Tobias Schmid, the director of the State Agency for Media in North Rhine-Westphalian, said: In the end it is very simple: Anyone
who wants to earn money with pornography in the German market has to adhere to German laws.
The agency has now been able to determine the hosting provider for xHamster. This is not trivial, as many porn portals disguise their IT
infrastructure with the help of cloud services. The media censor has now written an official to the web host. |
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Germany moves towards requiring age verification for porn sites
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 | 27th October 2020
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| See
article from vice.com
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In November of 2019, Tobias Schmid began a crusade to regulate some of porn's biggest players. Schmid , the director of the State Media Authority (LMA) of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia, wanted to enforce existing mandatory age laws on porn
sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and xHamster. In practice, this would mean that all visitors to the sites would have to upload pictures of official IDs and risk the data falling into the hands of moralists and blackmailers. Now, after an almost year long
legal scramble and porn sites refusing to back down, it looks like Schmid could get his way. After telecommunication providers like Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom refusing to voluntarily implement DNS blocks against a number of sites, including Pornhub,
YouPorn, and MyDirtyHobby, German authorities are now in the process of legally enforcing the bans. |
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5th October 2020
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Politico reports on German moves to force social media platforms to proactively report hate speech to the government See
article from politico.eu |
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Germany is pursuing sex workers that post on open content systems in the USA, notably Twitter
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16th August 2020
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| See article from xbiz.com See
also article from dailydot.com |
German authorities have been stepping up their efforts to fine in-country sex workers for posting sexually explicit content on open online platforms like Twitter, forcing them to take down posts on the U.S.-based -- and Free Speech-protected -- sites.
Jessica Klein of Daily Dot explained that the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media makes it illegal to distribute pornography to which minors have access. Government censors from a confusing patchwork of censorship bodies in
state and local governments have been using that legislation to target sex workers who post sexual content on open platforms like Twitter without an age-verification firewall. The Daily Dot interviewed Bodil Diederichsen, who works with the
Medienanstalt Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein (MA HSH), a regional media censor. Diederichsen was unusually candid about the official efforts to censor sex workers, and said that her unit mainly work off tips, getting notifications from the public about
possibly offending content, which also includes hate speech and other violations, before researching it themselves. Ultimately, the German censors target the posters themselves, with threats of hefty fines. Presumably this avchieves more than try to get
Twitter to do the censorship. German law allows the posting on explicit content to what they call a closed user group (i.e., behind some kind of age-verification wall). But in the case of Twitter, the process is at the discretion of these local
censorship bodies, like MA HSH. |
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Merkel's successor gets in a pickle for claiming that YouTubers should be censored before an election
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 | 31st May 2019
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| See article from thetrumpet.com |
Prior to the European Parliament elections, popular YouTube users in Germany appealed to their followers to boycott the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). Following a miserable
election result, CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer made statements suggesting that in the future, such opinions may be censored. Popular German YouTube star Rezo urged voters to punish the CDU and its coalition partner by not voting for them.
Rezo claimed that the government's inactions on critical issues such as climate change, security and intellectual property rights are destroying our lives and our future. Rezo quickly found the support of 70 other influential YouTube presenters.
But politicians accused him of misrepresenting information and lacking credibility in an effort to discredit him. Nonetheless, his video had nearly 4 million views by Sunday, the day of the election. Experts like Prof. J3crgen Falter of the
University of Mainz believe that Renzo's video swayed the opinions of many undecided voters, especially those under age 30. Kramp-Karrenbauer commented on it during a press conference: What would have happened
in this country if 70 newspapers decided just two days before the election to make the joint appeal: 'Please don't vote for the CDU and SPD ? That would have been a clear case of political bias before the election. What are the
rules that apply to opinions in the analog sphere? And which rules should apply in the digital sphere?
She concluded that these topics will be discussed by the CDU , saying: I'm certain, they'll
play a role in discussions surrounding media policy and democracy in the future.
Many interpreted her statements as an attack on freedom of speech and a call to censor people's opinions online. Ria Schröder, head of the Young
Liberals, wrote: The CDU's understanding of democracy If you are against me, I censor you is incomprehensible! The right of a user on YouTube or other social media to discuss his or her
political view is covered by Germany's Basic Law, which guarantees freedom of speech.
Kramp-Karrenbauer's statements may threaten her chance for the chancellorship. More importantly, they expose the mindset of Germany's political
leadership.
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European politicians vs Silicon Valley
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 | 14th May 2019
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| See article from wsws.org |
The German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened the re:publica 2019 conference in Berlin last week with a speech about internet censorship. The World Socialist Web Site reported the speech: With cynical references to Germany's
Basic Law and the right to freedom of speech contained within it, Steinmeier called for new censorship measures and appealed to the major technology firms to enforce already existing guidelines more aggressively. He stated, The
upcoming 70th anniversary of the German Basic Law reminds us of a connection that pre-dates online and offline: liberty needs rules--and new liberties need new rules. Furthermore, freedom of opinion brings with it responsibility for opinion. He stressed
that he knew there are already many rules, among which he mentioned the notorious Network Enforcement Law (Netz DG), but it will be necessary to argue over others. He then added, Anyone who creates space for a political discussion
with a platform bears responsibility for democracy, whether they like it or not. Therefore, democratic regulations are required, he continued. Steinmeier said that he felt this is now understood in Silicon Valley. After a lot of words and announcements,
discussion forums, and photogenic appearances with politicians, it is now time for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Co. to finally acknowledge their responsibility for democracy, finally put it into practice.
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Germany lawmakers consider bill to ban Tor and perhaps even encrypted messaging
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 | 23rd April 2019
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| See CC
article from privateinternetaccess.com by Caleb Chen
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On the 15th of March, the German Bundesrat (Federal Council) voted to amend the Criminal Code in relation to internet based services such as The onion router (Tor). The proposed law has been lambasted as being too vague, with
privacy experts rightfully fearful that the law would be overapplied. The proposal, originating from the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Justice Peter Biesenbach, would amend and expand criminal law and make running a Tor node or website illegal and
punishable by up to three years in prison. According to Zeit.de, if passed, the expansion of the Criminal Code would be used to punish anyone who offers an internet-based service whose access and accessibility is limited by special technical precautions,
and whose purpose or activity is directed to commit or promote certain illegal acts. What's worse is that the proposed changes are so vaguely worded that many other services that offer encryption could be seen as falling under
this new law. While the proposal does seem to have been written to target Tor hidden services which are dark net markets, the vague way that the proposal has been written makes it a very real possibility that other encrypted services such as messaging
might be targeted under these new laws, as well. Now that the motion to amend has been accepted by Bundesrat, it will be forwarded to the Federal Government for drafting, consideration, and comment. Then, within a month and a
half, this new initiative will be forwarded to the German Senate, aka the Bundestag, where it will be finally voted on. Private Internet Access and many others denounce this proposal and continue to support Tor and an open internet
Private Internet Access currently supports the Tor Project and runs a number of Tor exit nodes as a part of our commitment to online privacy. PIA believes this proposed amendment to the German Criminal Code is not just bad for Tor,
which was named specifically, but also for online privacy as a whole -- and we're not the only ones. German criminal lawyer David Schietinger told Der Spiegel that he was concerned the law was too overreaching and could also mean
an e-mail provider or the operator of a classic online platform with password protection. The bill contains mainly rubber paragraphs with the clear goal to criminalize operators and users of anonymization services. Intentionally,
the facts are kept very blurred. The intention is to create legal uncertainty and unavoidable risks of possible criminal liability for anyone who supports the right to anonymous communication on the Internet.
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Germany's highest court upholds legislation allowing public Wi-Fi previously impractical due to laws holding networks responsible for copyright infringement by users
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31st July 2018
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| See article from xbiz.com
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Germany's highest court last week upheld legislation that offers Wi-Fi operators immunity from acts carried out by third-party users. The decision by the Federal Court of Justice now makes it easier for individuals and businesses to offer Wi-Fi
without fearing civil prosecution for acts of copyright infringement committed by others. Prior to the ruling, because of the legal concept known as Störerhaftung, or interferer's liability, a third party who played no deliberate part in
someone else's actions could be held responsible for them. As a result, Wi-Fi hot spots are few and far between in Germany. Visitors from abroad have found themselves shut out at public venues and unable to access the web like they could in other
countries. Copyright holders are still able to get court orders requiring WiFi providers to block copyright infringing websites.
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16th June 2018
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A report about 1200 internet censors working in Germany to delete Nazi symbols and insults of migrants See
article from independent.co.uk |
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German politician gets name calling censored as required under new internet censorship law, but she is now demanding that it should be censored worldwide, not just in Germany
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 | 5th May 2018
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| See
article from techdirt.com |
| Internet censors in training |
It hasn't taken long for Germany's new internet censorship to be used against the trivial name calling of politicians. A recent German law was intended to put a stop to hate speech, but its difficult and commercially expensive to bother
considering every case on its merits, so its just easier and cheaper for internet companies to censor everything asked for. So of course easily offended politician are quick to ask for trivial name calling insults to be taken down. But now there's
a twist, for an easily offended politician, it is not enough for Facebook to block an insult in Germany, it must be blocked worldwide. Courthouse News Service reports that a German court has indulged a politician's hypocritical outrage to demand
the disappearance of an insulting comment posted to Facebook. Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, objected to a Facebook post calling her a dirty Nazi swine for her opposition to same-sex marriage. Facebook
immediately complied, but Weidel's lawyers complained it hadn't been vanished hard enough, pointing out that German VPN users could still access the comment. Facebook's only comment, via Reuters, was to note it had already blocked the content in
Germany , which is all the law really requires. Of course once you allow mere insults to be censorable, you then hit the issue of fairness. Insults against some PC favoured groups are totally off limits and are considered to be a PC crime of the
century, whilst insults against others (eg white men) are positively encouraged. |
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| 26th April 2018
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When social-media giants become the corporate wing of state censorship. By Steve Bremner See article from
spiked-online.com |
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New law comes into force in Germany requiring social media to delete 'hate speech' within 24 hours
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 | 2nd October 2017
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| See article from qz.com
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Germany's new internet censorship law came into force on 1st October. The law nominally targets 'hate speech', but massively high penalties coupled with ridiculously short time scales allowed to consider the issues, mean that the law ensures that
anything the authorities don't like will have to be immediately censored...just in case. Passed earlier this summer, the law will financially penalize social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, if they don't remove hate speech, as
per its definition in Germany's current criminal code within 24 hours. They will be allowed up to a week to decide for comments that don't fall into the blatant hate speech category. The top fine for not deleting hate speech within 24 hours is 50 million
euro though that would be for repeatedly breaking the law, not for individual cases. Journalists, lawyers, and free-speech advocates have been voicing their concerns about the new law for months. They say that, to avoid fines, Facebook and others
will err on the side of caution and just delete swathes of comments, including ones that are not illegal. They worry that social media platforms are being given the power to police and effectively shut down people's right to free opinion and free speech
in Germany. The German Journalists Association (DJV) is calling on journalists and media organizations to start documenting all deletions of their posts on social media as of today. The borders of free speech must not be allowed to be drawn by
profit-driven businesses, said DJV chairman Frank 3cberall in a recent statement. Reporters Without Borders also expressed their strong opposition to the law when it was drafted in May, saying it would contribute to the trend to privatize
censorship by delegating the duties of judges to commercial online platforms -- as if the internet giants can replace independent and impartial courts. |
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Germany passes law requiring social media websites to immediately censor on request
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 | 30th June 2017
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| See article from bbc.co.uk |
Social media companies in Germany face fines of up to 50m euros if they fail to remove obviously illegal content in time. From October, Facebook, YouTube, and other sites with more that two million users in Germany must take down posts containing hate
speech or other criminal material within 24 hours. Content that is not obviously unlawful must be assessed within seven days. Failure to comply will result in a 5m euro penalty, which could rise to 50m euros depending on the severity of the offence.
Facebook responded in a statement: We believe the best solutions will be found when government, civil society and industry work together and that this law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this
important societal problem.
German MPs voted in favour of the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG) law after months of deliberation, on the last legislative day before the Bundestag's summer break. Opponents responded the
tight time limits are unrealistic, and will lead to accidental censorship as technology companies err on the side of caution and delete ambiguous posts to avoid paying penalties. The bill has faced criticism from human right's campaigners. Many of
the violations covered by the bill are highly dependent on context, context which platforms are in no position to assess, wrote the UN Special Rapporteur to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, David Kaye. He added that the obligations placed upon
private companies to regulate and take down content raises concern with respect to freedom of expression. The law may still be chllenged in Brussels, where campaigners have claimed it breaches EU laws. |
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Germany joins chorus of governments wanting an end to a safe and encrypted internet
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| 15th June 2017
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| See article from dailymail.co.uk
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German authorities want the right to look at private messages on services such as WhatsApp to try and prevent terrorism. Ministers have also agreed to lower the age limit for fingerprinting minors to six from 14 for asylum seekers. Ministers from
central government and federal states said encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Signal, allow militants and criminals to evade traditional surveillance. We can't allow there to be areas that are practically outside the law, interior
minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters. Among the options Germany is considering is source telecom surveillance, where authorities install software on phones to relay messages before they are encrypted. That is now illegal. Austria is
also planning laws to make it easier to monitor encrypted messages as well as building out a linked network of cameras and other equipment to read vehicle licence plates. Meanwhile Japan is also introducing mass snooping in the name of the
prevention of terrorism. See Japan passes 'brutal' counter-terror law despite fears over
civil liberties from theguardian.com |
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Germany approves plans to require social media to immediately censor posts that complainants do not like
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7th April 2017
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| See article from
linx.net |
German ministers have recently approved plans to fine technology companies if they fail to censor posts that are claimed to be hate speech or 'fake news'. The law introduces fines to the tune of approximately £42.7m if technology companies do not
censor complalined about posts within 24 hours of it being reported (or seven days to deal with less clear-cut cases). The approval comes one month after the draft law, the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, was unveiled. Google, Facebook and Twitter
are likely to be particularly affected. Many have raised concerns over the censorship process. The head of the Digital Society Association, Volker Tripp, said: It is the wrong approach to make social networks into a content police. The implementation of the law will now mean that all contended posts will now be rapidly and routinely removed regardless of the voracity of the complaint. After all this is the age when complainants are always right.
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Germany continues to try and censor its way out of its refugee mess
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5th November 2016
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| See article from telegraph.co.uk |
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is at the centre of a criminal investigation in Germany into whether Facebook adequately censors Nazi-themed content posted on the social network. Facebook's Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and its
European policy director, Richard Allan, are also under investigation, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel. All three have been accused by Chan-jo Jun, a Bavarian lawyer, of failing to ensure posts on Facebook containing racist abuse, threats of
violence and Holocaust denial are removed. Jun said he identified more than 430 posts on Facebook which he found offensive which were reported to Facebook but never deleted. Instead, he said Facebook sent him a generic response dismissing the
posts as harmless. According to Der Spiegel, prosecutors in Munich have now opened a preliminary investigation and are looking into whether there is enough evidence of a criminal offence. Under German law, Facebook is legally obliged to
remove racist or Nazi-themed content as soon as it becomes aware of it. Facebook has dismissed the allegations, saying they lack merit, and insists that none of its employees have broken any laws.
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Germany is getting worked up that it cannot get Facebook to adequately censor negative comments about refugees
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| 15th October 2016
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| See article from germanpulse.com |
Germanpulse has published an interesting piece about German politicians expecting social media websites to pre-censors posts that the government doesn't like: We have reported on the German government's war against social
media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google many times over the last year as the country tries to rid the popular sites of any signs of hate speech. While the companies have made attempts to appease government officials with stricter enforcement, each move
is said to still not be enough. The question is: is Germany taking the fight too far? Volker Kauder, a member of the CDU, spoke with Der Spiegel this week to say the time for roundtables is over. I've run out of patience, and argues that Facebook, Twitter and Google have failed and should pay 50,000 euro ($54,865) fines for not providing a strict level of censorship.
All major social media sites do provide tools to report hate speech offenders, but Kauder isn't the only one to argue that the tool is ineffective. Justice Minister Heiko Maas made a statement that only 46
percent of the comments were erased by Facebook, while a mere one percent were taken care of by Twitter. Maas' solution is not much different from Kauder's, as he told Handelsblatt that the companies should face legal
consequences.
...Read the full article from germanpulse.com Der Spiegel has also published an opinion
piece showing a little exasperation with trying to get comments censored by Facebook. In June, the national body made up of justice ministers from the 16 federal states in Germany launched a legislative initiative to
introduce a law which, if passed, would require operators of Internet platforms to immediately disclose the identity of users whose online actions are the subject of criminal proceedings. The law explicitly covers companies that are not based in
Germany, but in fact do business here. Justice Minister Maas must now introduce the draft law to Chancellor Merkel's cabinet, but he's hesitant out of fear of a backlash among a net community that still views Facebook as a
symbol of Internet freedom. So far, he has done little that goes beyond appeals. If he wanted too, however, Maas could push for a further tightening of the country's telecommunications law. All that would be needed is a clause stipulating that every
Internet company that does business in Germany would be required to name one person within the firm who is a resident in the country who could be held liable under German law.
...Read the full
article from spiegel.de |
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German police raids targeted at right wing extremism on social media
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15th July 2016
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| See article from bbc.com |
German police have carried out a series of raids, targeting people suspected of posting alleged hate content on social media. The co-ordinated raids on 60 addresses were the first time the authorities had acted on this issue in such an extreme way.
Police comments on the issue suggest that the target of the raids were for comments that were considered right-wing extremism. However it is difficult to interpret the background when both the police and newspaper statements are contorted by
the politically correct requirement to not mention islam. Holger Munch, president of Germany's federal criminal police authority, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) said: Today's action makes it clear that police authorities of the federal and state
governments act firmly against hate and incitement on the internet. He said politically motivated hate crime on the internet had increased significantly in the wake of the European refugee crisis. Under pressure from the German authorities,
Facebook, Twitter and Google agreed at the end of last year to delete such speech from their services within 24 hours. Facebook also agreed to a series of further measures including: Partnering with a German group of multimedia service
providers to solve the problem Launching a task force to deal with hate speech on the internet A propaganda campaign to promote counter speech in German, drawing in experts to develop ways to combat racism through discussions on
social media.
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German police raid the homes of individuals who have criticised refugee issues on social media
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 | 11th April 2016
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| See article from breitbart.com |
Berlin Police completed a large scale raid on internet users Wednesday. Police ransacked ten separate apartments. Nine people were arrested and are accused of posting messages critical of migrants, migrant helpers and some anti-semitic slogans on social
networks like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. The men were not connected by membership of far right groups. Police spokesman Stefan Redlich said that while many of the men shared anti-migrant views, the men do not know each other according to
previous findings, and there was no evidence of any planned conspiracy to commit crime among them. Redlich justified the raids saying they were maybe, people who just once expressed their hate-opinion. Police announced that the raids
show Germans that they are not as safe online as they might think. They say that anyone who says something xenophobic, spreads hate toward migrants, or shares what they consider to be xenophobic music, may be next on the list of apartments to be raided
in the future.
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And also worries about the grey zone where the not so far right citizens criticise refugees
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28th January 2016
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| See article from dailymail.co.uk
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Germany has banned a far-right website for spreading racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic content and arrested two people in a clampdown on hate crime. Material on the website included banned Nazi slogans and the denial
of the Holocaust as well as incitement of violence against foreigners, the prosecutors' office said. The ban on the Altermedia Deutschland platform came as raids were carried out in homes in four German states as well as in the northeastern
Spanish town of Lloret de Mar. The two arrested people were the administrators of the Altermedia website and therefore responsible for its content that was served from a hosting company in Russia. German officials have asked Russia to take down
the website. The head of Germany's domestic intelligence, Hans-Georg Maassen, told reporters that: There is the danger of a gray zone developing between far-right extremists, right-wing conservatives and citizen
protesters with significant potential for violence.
Meanwhile Dutch far right website speaks of police taking action against people who tweet too much 28th January 2016. See
article from neurope.eu Dutch police have been visiting the homes of people critical of asylum centres on
Twitter, urging them to delete posts. In recent months, police have visited the homes of many more people that criticised the plans for asylum centres. In October 2015, in Leeuwarden about twenty opponents of the programs received police visits at
home. It happened in Enschede, and in some places in the Brabant, where, according to the Dutch media, people who had been critical of the arrival of refugees and ran a page on social media on the topic were told to stop. A spokesman for the
national police acknowledged to Handelsblad that there are ten intelligence units of digital detectives monitoring in real time Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and looking for posts that go too far . |
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Facebook launches undetailed censorship scheme in Germany in response to government pressure about criticism of refugees and immigration
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20th January 2016
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| See article from
mirror.co.uk |
Facebook has launched a censorship campaign designed to silence hate speech, extremism and racism in Europe. It unveiled its Online Civil Courage Initiative following months of pressure from the German government. Although Facebook
insists its strategy is about combating extremism, it does not make it clear whether this means Islamic terrorism, right wing racism or both. Announcing the launch of the initiative, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, said:
The best cure for bad ideas is good ideas. The best remedy for hate is tolerance. Hate speech has no place in our society - not even on the Internet. Facebook is not a place for the dissemination of hate speech or incitement to violence.
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German prosecutors initiate action against Facebook exec for allegedly allowing xenophobic comments
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12th November 2015
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| See article from
theguardian.com |
Prosecutors in Hamburg have launched an investigation into the European head of Facebook over the website's alleged failure to remove racist hate speech. German politicians and celebrities have voiced 'concern' about the rise of xenophobic comments in
German on Facebook and on other social media as the country struggles to cope with the million refugees who have responded to the country's inviitation. Facebook's Hamburg-based managing director for northern, central and eastern Europe , Martin
Ott, may be held responsible for the social platform not removing hate speech. This move follows an investigation into three other Facebook managers started last month. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has previously urged Facebook to do more
on the matter. Facebook said it would not commenting on the investigation. But we can say that the allegations lack merit and there has been no violation of German law by Facebook or its employees. |
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Germany considers prosecuting Facebook over hateful comments about migrants
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22nd October 2015
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| See article from sacbee.com |
With enormous numbers of refugees prompting significant numbers of hateful posts on social media, German prosecutors are considering going after Facebook itself for acting as a home for posts that advocate racial hatred and violate laws against neo-Nazi
speech. German prosecutors are investigating possible charges against three Facebook managers, prompted by a complaint that they failed to act against racist comments about Europe's refugee crisis. The complaint came from German attorney
Chan-jo Jun, of Wuerzburg. In it, he claimed to have flagged more than 60 Facebook entries that would violate German hate-speech laws. In an interview in Die Welt newspaper, he noted that the posts he flagged -- some featuring Nazi insignia and people
posing while giving a Nazi salute -- are strictly forbidden by German law. But, he said, Facebook responded to his complaints by saying the content didn't violate Facebook's community standards, and the posts were not removed. He made copies of
the posts and sent them to Facebook's German managers by registered mail. In the complaint he filed, he noted: We need to put an end to the arrogance with which some companies try to translate their system of values to
Europe. Facebook Germany encourages the dissemination of offensive, punishable content through its actions in Germany.
This week, the German tabloid Bild ran a two-page spread of nothing but hateful Facebook
comments, complete with user names and profile photos. The comments were directed at the large number of refugees seeking asylum in Germany, and those who support them.
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Twitter implements blocks Germany from receiving tweets from banned right wing group
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 | 20th October 2012
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| Thanks to Nick 19th October 2012. See article from
bbc.co.uk
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Twitter has blocked access to a neo-Nazi account at the request of the German government. The tweets will no longer be visible to users in Germany although the rest of the world will be able to view them. It is the first time the social
networking site has implemented its local censorship policy, which came into force in January. That policy allows it to block content in specific countries. Announcing the decision, Twitter's general counsel Alex Macgillivray published links to
the letter sent by German police, requesting the account be closed. The letter outlined how the government had banned the organisation Besseres Hannover, (Better Hannover), a right-wing extremist group from Lower Saxony. It is disbanded, its
assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately, the letter read. Update: The easily offended queue up to get insults blocked by Twitter 20th October 2012. See
article from thelocal.fr
The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) is attempting to get a legal judgment against Twitter to block and reveal the identities of users who sent anti-Semitic tweets under the hashtag #UnBonJuif - A Good Jew. Spurred on by Twitter's
decision to ban a neo-Nazi account in Germany, the group has sought a legal order for the tweets and their writers to be blocked. The UEJF's lawyer, Stephane Lilti, has criticized Twitter's reaction to their complaints, and claims their demands were not
listened to: There is a fire and we have to put it out. We want to put an end to this torrent of hatred, which could become all so real. Like all hosts, Twitter has to react promptly when someone tells them about
racism on their site. Twitter has reacted as an American service provider: they're obsessed with American law. But, for tweets in French, destined for French people, Twitter must follow French law.
However
saying that, the tweets are now being removed. The decision to remove the tweets emerged from a meeting between Twitter's senior management, the UEJF president Jonathan Hayoun and the group's legal representatives. During the meeting the UEJF handed over
a list of the posts it wants removed.
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10th December 2011 | |
| Germany strikes off unused law enabling website blocking for child abuse images
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See article
from upi.com
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Germany's lower house of Parliament has repealed a law enabling website blocking iof websites containing child pornography. The Bundestag's 2009 law enabled a list of sites compiled by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office to be blocked by
ISPs. However the law was denounced as soon as it was passed and the repeal process was put into effect. The criticism was that internet blocks are easy to work round via proxies and that putting them on a blocked list rather lets such
websites off the hook, as they have seemingly been dealt with. And of course the websites are effectively vanished to decent folks, so there will be no further complaints for the authorities to act upon. The only way to prevent such sites from
being viewed is to delete them, Internet expert Jimmy Schulz said, by alerting the individual Internet service providers.
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13th June 2011 | |
| Germany to set up internet censorship in the name of blocking gambling sites
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Based on article from
opennet.net
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An inter-state treaty that will overhaul Germany's gambling restrictions could prove a threat to the open net. Should a recent draft be adopted, ISPs would be obliged to prevent users from accessing unauthorized gambling websites, which critics fear will
mean the establishment of a censorship infrastructure that would breach constitutional rights. A draft of the treaty sent to the European Union for approval in April includes a paragraph which has been widely interpreted as a provision for the
introduction of Internet filtering as a means of blocking out foreign and unlicensed gambling websites: [Translated from German] The gambling superintendent can [...], after prior publication of unauthorized gambling
services, interdict service providers in the sense of the tele-media act, in particular access providers and registrars, participation in providing access to unauthorized gambling services. Commenting on an earlier draft of the same treaty,
the Chaos Computer Club had warned that Internet service providers might be forced to implement deep packet inspection in order to prevent clients from accessing foreign gambling websites. In particular, mention of an impact on the constitutional right
to telecommunications secrecy, meaning that content information would be accessed, makes an intention to introduce deep packet inspection plausible. The new gambling treaty has to be signed by 13 of Germany's 16 federal states to become effective.
So far, the issue has raised controversy in a range of states governed by coalitions of Greens (against the proposal) and Social Democrats (for the proposal. The issue has become particularly controversial in Northrine-Westphalia when recently it
was discovered that for more than a year, there are already two district-level blocking orders (in German) against gambling websites. These were based on the old gambling treaty, but have been disputed in court by the two ISPs in concern. As a Telekom
speaker explained, the company perceives website blocking as requiring an unconstitutional breach of telecommunications secrecy. The prime ministers of the federal states have now decided to delay a final decision on the gambling treaty to
October.
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7th April 2011 | |
| Germany to repeal internet blocking legislation
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See article
from monstersandcritics.com
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Germany is to repeal controversial legislation intended to block access to child-pornography sites on the internet, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said. She had led protests by German libertarians against the legislation,
which was was passed in 2009 but never implemented. Opponents contended that it opened the way to web censorship, since it set up mechanisms that could also be used by a dictatorial government to block politically offensive websites. ISPs
would have been required to block page requests for child porn and to instead display a stop sign. The minister said German police were now coping with the problem differently, tracking down servers with child-porn images and demanding that
the server owners delete the images. German federal police have a web-porn department that tips off foreign police forces about child-abuse websites.
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24th June 2009 | |
| Teacher rating website cleared to continue in Germany
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From timesonline.co.uk
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A German court has ruled that schoolchildren may rate their teachers online, rejecting the case of a woman who argued that her rights had been infringed by pupils who gave her bad grades on a popular website.
The rights of the woman, a teacher of
German and religion, had not been compromised by the ratings and pupils had a right to offer an opinion as long as they did not hinder her professionally, the German Federal Court of Justice found.
The opinions expressed are neither abusive
nor insulting, the court said in a statement: The plaintiff did not show that she had been harmed in any specific way.
Collection, storage, and transmission of ratings by online portal spickmich.de was therefore permissible without the
assent of the plaintiff, the court ruled. The ruling will boost controversial websites such as Rate My Teacher in the UK, which operates a similar system.
This year more than one in ten teachers said that they were bullied by pupils and
colleagues through text messages, e-mails and social networking sites.
A quarter of UK teachers said that they had had offensive messages posted about them on social networking sites such as Facebook or Rate My Teacher, according to the survey by
the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the Teacher Support Network.
The lawyers of the German teacher, who had been given a rating of 4.3 for her German teaching, argued that the site was unfair and inaccurate because users rate subjects
anonymously. This could lead to multiple ratings by the same person, as well as ratings by people with no connection to the school or teacher in question, they argued.
But the court said that in this case, the right of the individual to express
an opinion outweighed these concerns.
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20th June 2009 | |
| German parliament passes internet blocking law
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From theinquirer.net
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The German parliament passed a bill Thursday imposing censorship of pornographic websites justified by the need to protect children.
The legislation was proposed by a coalition of German social democratic and conservative parties. It requires the
country's federal criminal investigators to maintain a list of websites accused of containing child pornography and to distribute it to German ISPs, which will then be required to block queries to those websites with a stop sign.
In its present
form, the bill requires only that ISPs display the warning sign. Users will still be able to access the flagged websites, but they will be advised that viewing child pornography is illegal. German legislators also bowed to criticism by adding a sunset
clause that will see the law expire in three years.
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17th June 2009 | |
| Blocked attempts not logged so German internet filtering now commands political support
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Based on article from
business.avn.com
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Politicians from the nation's two major parties agreed on a final version of Germany's internet filtering bill Monday night, reports Gigaom. The bill could now be approved as soon as Thursday.
Free-speech advocates, Internet activists and
Internet service providers have opposed the bill and suggest denial-of-service blocking does not work, with concerns this will take the government into areas of greater Internet censorship.
Under the measure, German federal police would compile a
block list containing the domain names and IP addresses of websites hosting and linking to child porn. ISPs would be required to block the sites and redirect all traffic to a site or sites hosting a warning message in the form of a red Stop sign. An official online petition against the bill has received more than 130,000 signatures and counting, plus the number of citizens trying to sign the petition has reportedly brought down the parliament's Web infrastructure several times.
ISPs had voiced opposition to provisions in the measure that would mandate that they log each attempt to access a blocked site and share the information with law enforcement organizations. This would include anyone who might accidentally click on
the wrong link, even if it was placed by a hacker. In turn, an innocent person could be labeled a pedophile, and with that possibility in mind, lawmakers removed that portion of the bill requiring ISP logs.
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5th June 2009 | |
| Internet blocking proposal not getting an easy ride in Germany
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Based on article from
spiegel.de
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German Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen is struggling to pass a new law designed to combat online child pornography in the face of widespread concern over censorship and freedom of speech. The law would use blacklists to bar access to specific sites.
Von der Leyen proposes setting up an office in the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation to determine whether or not sites should be blocked. Lists would then be sent to Internet service providers, which would be responsible for blocking the
content.
The list would contain an estimated 1,500 sites. Von der Leyen says blocking them could derail 450,000 hits a day. The personal data and ISP addresses of people trying to access blocked sites would not be captured.
The bill would
be the first time in the history of post-war Germany that police would be granted the authority to determine what can and cannot be shown by the mass media. Right now, the legislation doesn't call for any supervision of the proposed agency.
Opponents of the bill say the proposal threatens the freedom of the Internet, and that blocks on Web sites and other censorship measures are easily bypassed and ineffective. Thus far, almost 100,000 people have signed a petition against the measure, twice what the law requires to force a discussion in German parliament. One fear is that the list, once established, could be used to censor other sites. Opponents also argue that blocking Web sites is ineffective against child pornographers, who tend to distribute material through e-mail, peer-to-peer systems and chatrooms, all of which are much harder to police.
Social Democratic parliamentarian Gregor Amann said on Wednesday that he doubted the bill would succeed due to concerns over its threats to personal freedoms: Since I know many of my colleagues in the SPD share my opinion on this question, at
this point I would say that this bill will either not pass in this legislative period or will be dramatically changed.
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9th May 2009 | |
| Petitioning against internet blocking in Germany
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Based on article from
dw-world.de
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A petition against legislation designed to block harmful websites, such as those dedicated to child pornography, has collected more than 50,000 signatures after being posted online four days ago.
That number is the minimum required by German law
for parliament to open hearings on the issue.
The petition started by Berlin resident Franziska Heine, is in response to a telemedia bill which was approved by the German cabinet last month, but still requires parliamentary approval.
The
proposed legislation would require the vast majority of the country's internet service providers to block child pornography sites, as identified by the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA).
Heine claims the bill threatens the fundamental right to
freedom of the internet. They see the BKA list as a tool for censorship.
The petition was placed on the German parliament's website and organisers are hoping to reach 100,000 signatures by June 16.
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