Status: 05/29/2022 3:28 p.m
According to the research by “ZDF Magazin Royale”, several politicians see a need to catch up when it comes to combating hate comments on the Internet. The police and judiciary have “massive deficits” in this area, according to FDP politician Kuhle.
After a report in the “ZDF Magazin Royale” with the satirist Jan Böhmermann about slow or non-existent investigations into hate comments on the Internet, some politicians are calling for better combating of hate on the Internet. “It can’t go on like this,” wrote the domestic spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Konstantin Kuhle, on Twitter. The police and judiciary in Germany have “massive deficits” in criminal prosecution on the Internet.
Hamburg’s Senator for Justice, Anna Gallina, called for a “nationwide, state online service for reporting such crimes”. Former CDU General Secretary Ruprecht Polenz tweeted that research must be a topic at the next conference of interior ministers. “All state parliaments should deal with it and demand improvements from the state governments.” The domestic policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament, Lukas Kilian, spoke out in favor of a “crime scene on the internet”.
Hate mail ads
In August last year, the “ZDF Magazin Royale” tried to report seven allegedly criminal hate messages from the Internet in all 16 federal states. They were aimed at Jews and refugees, among other things, showed Nazi symbols or openly threatened violence. According to the magazine, for example, in Hesse there was a quick response and the ads were passed on to state security, a police officer in Magdeburg asked a magazine employee to report the messages to the website operator and sent the woman away.
In the case of a swastika depiction, several state authorities stated a few weeks ago that they had not been able to identify the perpetrator. On the other hand, the police in Baden-Württemberg were able to find the perpetrator, who, according to the magazine, has already been fined by the Aalen district court.
Police officer in Bremen transferred to office work
The police in Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt announced that they had “immediately investigated the matter”. Among other things, proceedings had been initiated against a police officer on suspicion of frustration in the office. According to previous findings, “the receipt of a criminal complaint was omitted at the time”.
In Bremen, the police said that they had become aware of a possible violation by a police officer through a media inquiry, had filed a criminal complaint and initiated disciplinary proceedings. The officer in question is said to have recorded a complaint, but only recorded it in the processing system two months later. It was said that he had been withdrawn from direct contact with the public and transferred to the office.
In Saxony, too, the public prosecutor’s office has started investigations against unknown persons because of a possible thwarting of criminal prosecution, the ZDF program has already reported. The police in Mainz stated that they basically take all information seriously, “regardless of how they reach us”. She will “incorporate the criticism and many hints of this program into our review for optimization”.