German police carried out raids
across the country Thursday as part of investigations against 40 people accused of online hate speech against a pro-refugee politician who was
murdered by a suspected neo-Nazi in 2019.
With growing dangers from far-right extremist groups and torrents of threats against politicians, Germany is set to toughen
online speech laws and tighten the screws on social networks.
The German government on Wednesday approved a draft law to crack down on the far right, three weeks after a deadly attack by an alleged neo-Nazi targeting a synagogue.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday said
Germany must resist neo-Nazis 'without any taboos' following the killing of a
local politician by a suspected right-wing extremist.
Half a year ago, a controversial new German law came into force with the aim of combating hate speech on social media. On Friday, Youtube and Facebook published first figures on how often it has been used.
The head of a far-right organization in the western town of Bielefeld was sentenced to half a year in prison on Thursday for calling someone a “cheeky Jewish functionary.”
Social media giant Facebook said on Wednesday that a second centre in Germany committed to deleting hateful or violent content will be set up in Essen by fall.
A Berlin artist is drumming up debate about hate speech and censorship by spray-painting offensive tweets outside the doors of Twitter’s German headquarters.
For the first time, Facebook opened up its Berlin centre for deleting hateful or violent content, providing journalists with a glimpse into the workers' everyday dealings with decapitation videos, racist propaganda and child pornography.
Germany's parliament voted Friday to punish social media giants with fines of up to €50 million if they systematically fail to remove illegal hate speech.
A proposed German law designed to heavily penalize social media firms for 'hate speech' will scare Facebook and other social media giants into suppressing content that is legal, argues Nick Wallace.
Members of the right-wing Identitarian movement attempted to storm the German justice ministry in Berlin on Friday over a proposed law to fight hate speech on social media.
The German government on Wednesday approved fines of up to €50 million against online giants that fail to remove hate speech and fake news reported by users within a week.
The Justice Minister proposed a law on Tuesday that could see social networks such as Facebook slapped with heavy fines if they fail to wipe illegal hate speech from their sites.
Sixty percent of Germans think internet users should be forced to use their real name when leaving comments - but the response varies dramatically between different age groups.
People throwing around words like “vermin” or advocating the return of the gas chambers in online comments face high fines in Germany – as one German publication made very clear on Tuesday.
The founder of Germany's xenophobic and anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement will appear in court Tuesday on hate speech charges for branding refugees "cattle" and "scum" on social media.
The United states should "follow the example of Germany" and take in more refugees fleeing conflicts around the world, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in Berlin on Friday.
Green Party MP Volker Beck has initiated legal proceedings against the anti-Islamic group Pegida and several of its supporters over death threats against him on its Facebook page.
Germany announced a deal Tuesday with social network giants Facebook, Twitter and Google to clamp down on hate speech, with the Internet companies pledging to remove offending posts within 24 hours.
